


Five Weeks

by vio1et



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 02:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20685806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vio1et/pseuds/vio1et
Summary: After accidentally destroying city property with his uncontrolled super power, Wooseok is required to attend five sessions of a support group for people like him.





	1. Week One: The Others

**Author's Note:**

> super power au (aka the best type of au) because it’s what wooseok/kino deserves!!!! as always i hope u like it and enjoy :o) 
> 
> (also to anyone who left me a comment on my last fic: thank you so much!!!! they mean the world to me, truly.) 

Wooseok is last to arrive. He knows this because he peeked into the window and counted the chairs and heads twice over before he finally worked up the courage to go inside. 

It was only five meetings. He told himself that a hundred times. Maybe it’d even be good for him. It would definitely be good for him in the sense he wouldn’t have to do community service or pay a bunch of fines or go on house arrest. When he’d told his mom about it, she had thought it would be a good way to make friends who were _like him_, which made him feel like he was some sort of freak. Wooseok knew his mom meant well, but she always lowered her voice whenever she mentioned him being _different_, like it was a secret or otherwise unpleasant. 

Then again, maybe it should have been. It’s not like he was always like this. He wasn’t frying his toys when he was in diapers. It appeared slowly, over time. First, it was just shocking himself on door knobs or zapping his friends. Then, he realized he could power up his phone by himself. Eventually, he graduated to other, bigger electronics. That was fun and harmless, but Wooseok still hadn't _liked_ being enhanced, as people like him were dubbed on the news. He never felt like he belonged. 

That had all only gotten worse when he’d gotten angry and taken out the power of an entire city block. The restoration had been expensive, and people had been _angry_. Wooseok’s life had been a nightmare of court dates and civil rights discussions ever since. The judge had finally decided that Wooseok wasn’t a threat if he learned to control his powers and cope with the changes he had experienced, so, along with his training sessions every Monday and Wednesday, he was now a less-than-proud member of the _Rose Valley Support Group for Enhanced Individuals_. For now, all of his Friday nights were occupied. 

When he finally enters the room where the meeting is being held, he’s met with eight sets of eyes staring directly at him. A couple of people smile or wave, but he feels like a new kid on the first day of elementary school. The silence was _deafening_. Then, an awkward, stringy boy with messy, brown hair takes it upon himself to cut right through it. 

“New recruit?” he asks. Wooseok nods. “Come in! Take a seat! None of these guys turn into the hulk as far as I know.”

Wooseok offers him a weak smile in return. He could tell the stringy boy was making an effort to make him comfortable, so he wanted to give him some sort of validation. Wooseok takes the last empty seat, right next to Stringy Boy. 

“I’m Shinwon,” he says, gesturing to himself. “I think some of these groups do the whole _anonymous_ thing, but we could never stick to that.” 

“_We_ couldn’t or _you_ couldn’t?” another member sitting across the room says, effectively accusing Shinwon of being the problem. Wooseok had only known him for fifteen seconds, but he could see that being true. 

“It was everyone!” Shinwon insists. The accuser scoffs. “Don’t listen to Hongseok. We’re a family here.”

“Um, okay,” Wooseok agrees with a tiny nod. He supposed even the best families had their quarrels. 

“You make us sound like the fucking X-Men,” Hongseok snaps back. Shinwon narrows his eyes and crosses his arms in defiance. 

Shinwon and Hongseok continue to argue, but Wooseok tunes them out. He begins to size everyone up, examining their hair and clothes. None of them _looked_ like weirdos. They looked normal, like he could’ve met them in his college classes or swiped past them on Tinder or bumped into them at a party. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of one boy in particular, who just smiled like Hongseok and Shinwon were the funniest people in the world while they squabbled. He was the _exact_ kind of boy who got Wooseok in trouble, and Wooseok desperately wanted to know his name. 

“Alright, _enough_,” bellows a voice from the center of the circle. Wooseok turns and sees a short boy with bright orange hair and a dingy, old clipboard. He looked way in over his head, but his face was warm, inviting. Wooseok wondered if all support group leaders looked like that. “It’s ten past seven, so let’s get started, okay?”

Everyone agrees, to which the orange-haired leader flashes a small smile. 

“Alright,” he says cheerfully. “Looks like we have a newbie. Do you want to introduce yourself? Maybe tell us about what makes you different, if you want to.” 

“I’m Wooseok,” he mumbled, “and I’d rather not right now, if that’s okay.”

“Okay. Never been rejected before, but that’s okay. It doesn’t hurt my feelings or anything,” Mr. Leader remarks with a smile that Wooseok genuinely thinks might be real, despite the sarcasm dripping from his voice. “Does anyone else want to share to make Wooseok feel more comfortable? Just tell us your name and your pow— difference.”

“I’ll go,” the smiley boy Wooseok had his eye on volunteers. Mr. Leader let out a sigh of relief, then gestures for him to continue. “I’m Kino. I am able to help plants with their growth and communicate with animals.”

“Let’s go, Dr. Doolittle!” Shinwon exclaims with a round of applause. Mr. Leader, who had taken the seat on the other side of him, pokes him between the ribs. 

“Thank you, Kino. Can you maybe share how that’s affected your life? It will help us build trust,” Mr. Leader asks. Kino shrugs with a nod. 

“Sure. I used to not really know what I wanted to do, but once my _difference_ developed, I became really passionate about our planet and animals. I’m studying to be a vet now,” Kino explains. _Of course_ he loved animals. Wooseok thought the courts should start screening these groups for distractions before ordering criminals to attend them. 

“Great! Thank you!” Mr. Leader enthuses. “Anyone else?”

Wooseok can hear the metaphorical crickets in the room. 

“Alright, fine. I’ll go. Bastards,” Mr. Leader sneers, but the smile quickly returns to his face. “I’m Hui! I’m an acoustokinetic.” 

“A what?” Wooseok murmurs. He swears that word was made up. 

“An acoustokinetic!” Hui repeats. “Hongseok, can you—?”

He gestures to an old TV on a stand in the corner of the room. Hongseok closes his eyes tight, and Wooseok braces himself for impact. To his surprise, after a few seconds, nothing happens. 

“It’s dead,” Hongseok explains. Hui sighs. 

“How can it be dead? Can’t you just tell it to wake up?” Hui asks. Hongseok squints. 

“Do I look like a necromancer?” 

“No, you _look_ like a dude who talks to computers,” Hui states plainly. 

“It’s not a computer. It’s not as easy to communicate with,” Hongseok corrects him. 

“Jesus, you really can’t handle a TV?” 

Wooseok rolls his eyes, then flicks his wrist. The TV powers on, and its screen lights up with static. Shinwon gasps. 

“Hongseok! You have a little dork friend! Now you can talk to TVs together!” he exclaims jokingly. For a brief moment, Wooseok considers lying and letting them all think that was his power. 

“I don’t talk to TVs,” he grumbles after a period of inner turmoil. A short boy with mousy brown hair’s entire face lights up when he pieces together who Wooseok is. 

“You’re the guy from the trial!” he acknowledges. “Electro!” 

Wooseok gritted his teeth as the others come to the same realization. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m him,” Wooseok admits. “Listen, I don’t know what you guys think of me, but I have no choice except to come here. It would be really nice if I could just do what I have to—”

“I, for one, think you’re pretty cool,” Kino says, cutting Wooseok off before he can continue to plead his case. “And I would bet the rest of us do, too. You’re not the only one who has lost control, and you have a really cool power.”

Wooseok swallows hard. He didn’t know a lot of other people with enhancements, so he hadn’t heard a lot of people support him personally in the matter. He’d read a lot of positive internet comments, but that wasn’t the same. 

“Thanks,” Wooseok mumbles. 

“Support group in action!” Hui cheers. He points a set of finger guns at Wooseok. 

Wooseok smiles softly, then glances over at the TV. It was still buzzing in the corner. 

“You never showed me what an acoustokinetic is,” Wooseok informs him. The smile on Hui's face disappears rapidly. Hui takes a hand and slowly raises it higher and higher, and with it, the buzzing starts to ring inside Wooseok’s ears. Wooseok yelps, so Hui brings his hand down, effectively silencing the TV completely, despite the screen still being turned on. 

“Fun fact, he can also see in the dark. Like a bat,” Shinwon informs Wooseok with a laugh. Wooseok smiles, pulling all of the electricity back out of the TV and balling it up into a bright light in the palm of his hand. 

“Holy shit,” one of the boys says, shooting up from his chair to inspect the orb in Wooseok’s hand. He grabbed Wooseok’s wrist, examining how the electricity touched his skin. “That’s fucking insane.” 

“Changgu, personal space,” Hui barks. The boy takes a step back. “At least introduce yourself.”

“Oh!” the boy gasps, pulling his arm away. “I’m Changgu. I am a pathokinetic.”

Wooseok furrows his eyebrows, releasing his balled up electricity into the lights above them. 

“You guys have _got_ stop using made up words,” Wooseok begs. 

“He manipulates people’s emotions,” Hongseok explains. “He can make you happy, sad, angry, excited... anything he wants.”

“Really?” Wooseok asks. Changgu nods, then squints really hard, like he’s trying to focus. After a couple of seconds, Wooseok begins to giggle against his will. Soon, he’s hunched over in laughter. 

“Okay, okay, I think he gets it,” Hui says, crossing his arms. Changgu pouts, and in a few seconds Wooseok returns to normal. 

“That was crazy!” Wooseok exclaims. “Oh, my god. You could do _anything_ with that!”

“And he doesn’t,” Shinwon adds in playful disgust. “If that were me, a billionaire would be in love with me by now.”

“What _do_ you do?” Wooseok asks, turning to Shinwon. Hui laughs at the question, which seemed to imply Shinwon’s uselessness was bearing its head. 

Shinwon just sighs, resting a hand on Wooseok’s shoulder. Wooseok feels a chill pass through his body, then panic. For a second, Wooseok thinks Shinwon is actually an emotional manipulator, too. Then, Shinwon snaps, and all the electricity powering the lighting in the room is in Shinwon’s palms. 

“Did you just steal my fucking power?” Wooseok exclaims. Shinwon nods. 

“More like borrowed, I’d say,” he decides. Wooseok’s mouth hangs open. “How do I put it back?”

Wooseok laughs. 

“Just focus on the orb and how you wish it wasn’t so dark,” Wooseok instructs. Shinwon closes his eyes, blocking everything else out. In time, the lights slowly turn back on. It wasn’t the instant action Wooseok had managed with the TV, but it still wowed the others. 

Once his palms aren’t filled with electricity anymore, Shinwon again rests his hand on Wooseok’s shoulder, and Wooseok feels whole again. 

“Who else has a cool power?” Wooseok asks excitedly. 

“_Difference_,” Hui corrects. Wooseok doesn’t even acknowledge him. 

“I think my power is the coolest,” Hongseok announces. “The world is becoming increasingly powered by technology, and I can control _all_ of it.”

“Really? Because Jinho is a fucking telepath,” Wooseok snaps. As soon as the words leave his mouth, he feels dizzy. “God, sorry. I don’t know where that came from.”

“Probably from Jinho, the telepath,” Hongseok suggests with an eye roll. Wooseok’s eyes widen, and somehow he just knows the mousy boy from before is Jinho. 

“Are you inside my brain right now?” Wooseok asks. In that moment, he was almost afraid of his own thoughts. 

“Not anymore,” Jinho promises. “If it helps, I can’t read your thoughts or whatever.”

“You just make me say whatever you want me to?” Wooseok asks. Jinho scrunches up his face. 

“I just send you the thoughts. It’s up to you if you want to voice them,” Jinho assures him. “It’s easier to hold them back when you know there’s a telepath nearby.”

“Right, cool. I’ll remember that,” Wooseok says with a nod. “And you’re really handsome, you know that?”

Wooseok stops, realizing what he just said. Everyone laughs, and Wooseok just buries his face into his hands in defeat. 

“We’ll work on it,” Jinho assures him. ”I can barely get into the other guys’ heads anymore.”

“Alright!” Hui exclaims, clapping his hands together. “Who’s left? Yanan and Yuto? Either of you two wanna give Wooseok a little preview?”

The boy sitting next to Kino, who had jet black hair and who Wooseok was almost sure hadn’t said _anything_ the whole night, points to himself. 

“I’m Yuto,” he says, giving Wooseok a little wave. Wooseok doesn’t know what to do besides wave back. He found Yuto to be completely intimidating. Even though he hadn’t done much of anything, the way he carried himself just made it seem like people should fear him. Wooseok’s ever small brain was happy to oblige. 

“I can warp reality,” Yuto alleges. “I don’t have a fancy word for it. I just can make others perceive things different than they actually are.”

“Different how?” Wooseok asks. Maybe he was right to be afraid. 

“Like this,” Yuto says, and, suddenly, the room is upside down. It was like gravity had shifted. The ceiling was below him, but Wooseok was still firmly in his chair, not falling down to the earth. 

“Okay, we found the coolest power,” Wooseok informs Hongseok and Jinho. He then shuts his eyes tight, hoping he can keep himself from throwing up the street hot dog he ate on the way over here. 

“I fixed it,” Yuto announces, giving Wooseok the okay to re-open his eyes. 

“Did everyone feel that?” Wooseok says, looking around in desperation. He’s met with head shakes. 

“No need to torture everyone. They’ve seen it before,” Yuto says coolly. Wooseok nods, completely unnerved by each power he learned about. 

“I guess that leaves me,” the final soul in the room, who Wooseok assumes must be Yanan, practically grumbles. He stands up and moves to the center of the circle of chairs. “Who wants to do it?”

“ME!” Shinwon shouts, jumping up with the most joy Wooseok had seen all night aside from his own Changgu-inspired giggle fit. “You ready?”

“Yep,” Yanan replies simply. Wooseok watches as Shinwon walks straight through Yanan, as though he isn’t there at all. Once he’s on the other side of him, he pokes a hand through Yanan’s stomach and waves at Wooseok, much to Yanan’s distaste. Wooseok almost throws up _again_. 

“You _know_ I don’t like it when foreign entities linger,” Yanan snaps, raising his hand as though he's going to hit Shinwon upside the head. Wooseok figures this meant he could turn his power on and off just like everyone else. 

“Sorry,” Shinwon pouts, but he immediately attempts to stick his finger through Yanan’s eye, only to be smacked for real on his wrist. 

Wooseok felt a tinge of jealousy washing over him as he watches the two bicker. Maybe his mom was right. He wanted to have friends who were like him. He wanted someone to understand his power, to be able to call whenever he fucked up and know they wouldn’t be afraid of him. He didn’t want to feel as lonely as he felt that night ever again.

He’s pulled back out of his thoughts at the sound of Hui’s clapping, indicating he was excited to change the subject. 

“Alright, alright. Now that Wooseok has gotten to know all of us, maybe we should get on to the group’s actual purpose,” Hui decides. “Does anyone want to share tonight?”

Hongseok raises his hand. Wooseok bites his lip. What could someone like _him_ possibly need support about? Did someone hog his favorite workout bench too long at the gym this morning? Still, Hui gestures for him to share. Guess even the most mundane problems were welcome. 

“So, I didn’t want to bring her up too soon, but there’s this girl,” Hongseok announces. The group responds with cheers and whooping. Wooseok doesn’t think that’s actually appropriate, but he lets it slide on account Hongseok was practically beaming at the response. “Yeah, yeah. I like her _a lot_. You guys know me. I never feel this way, but there’s just something there that I haven’t felt in a long time. The only issue is that she doesn’t know about my pow— enhancement.”

Wooseok’s heart practically stops. He’d never really thought about how being enhanced affected someone’s dating life. It hadn’t been a factor his own, mostly because he’d never dated anyone who didn’t already know about his power. You didn’t really recover your social credentials at school if you made your own hair stand on end during puberty.

“Maybe she doesn’t have to know. I don’t have a gift like Wooseok’s where I’m shutting down city blocks. Worst case scenario she thinks I’m really good with technology,” Hongseok ponders. “But I don’t want to hide a part of myself from her. What if she’s _the_ girl, you know? Am I going to hide it for the rest of my life? What if we have kids? I could pass down the hero gene, and suddenly I have to explain to her why our ten-year-old glows in the fucking dark.” 

Wooseok’s chilled to his bone at Hongseok’s mention of the hero gene. It was named for the original enhanced people, who had more often than not become superheroes, comic book style. The gene was initially dormant in most people who had it, but over the last couple of decades had slowly become more and more aggressive. Each person who carried the gene reacted to it in different ways, resulting in a plethora of different powers, even along family lines. Wooseok traced his family line on his mom’s side incessantly looking for anyone who might’ve been enhanced, but he had come up with nothing. Having never met his father, Wooseok could only assume he was the one who carried it. Wooseok always felt a little robbed because of that. He wasn’t the type of person who yearned for a father figure, but he certainly yearned for support and advice on how to deal with being an electric firecracker who could explode at any minute. 

“I don’t know what to do, guys. I feel like if I don’t tell her now, I can’t ever tell her. It’s not like three years down the line I can get down on one knee and tell her I want to marry her and _by the way_, when I talk to technology, it talks back,” Hongseok concludes. 

“Hongseok,” Hui says gently. “I don’t know anyone who is more proud of who they are than you. When you have found the one, she will love every part of you, including your enhancement, which only makes you even more special. I know she will because you will never let someone compromise how much you love yourself and your power. So, tell her.”

Hongseok nods, but he doesn’t seem convinced. Wooseok didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t tell a soul who he was if he could help it. He’d already had to move twice since the incident. He just wanted to be _normal_. It had already been established that no one was going to love Wooseok for who he was. Nobody even wanted to be his friend for who he was. 

“This is why we should all just date other people with differences,” Yanan says decidedly, crossing his arms. “Your girlfriend can’t dump you for talking to computers if she grows sewing needles from her knuckles.”

“Hey, that’s not a healthy way to look at—”

Hui is cut off by chimes of agreement from around the room. It sounded like everyone was afraid of being rejected by normal people because of their power. It wasn’t exactly unprecedented for normies to feel threatened or unsafe around anybody with an enhancement, no matter how inconsequential. Could Yanan hurt anybody by walking through walls? No. Did people who were scared of the enhanced care? Probably not. 

“If I marry a girl with a power, our kids are almost certainly all going to have a power,” Hongseok points out. “Erm, enhancement, I mean. Sorry, Hui.”

Hui returns his sentiment with a grateful nod. It seemed he was trying to do away with the word _power_. Wooseok supposed terms like that are what made people so afraid in the first place. 

“Anyway, I just mean that maybe I don’t want my kids to have a power. Maybe I want them to be able to _live_ without other people judging them,” Hongseok continues.

“Are we not all living?” Yanan asks. “Your enhancement got you a computer engineering degree and a cushy tech job.”

“My enhancement is great,” Hongseok admits. “It’s quiet. It’s helpful. I love it. But not every enhancement is like that. Not every enhancement is just a career waiting to happen. Not every enhancement can be kept quiet. Look at Wooseok. The whole city is talking about _Electro_.” 

Wooseok’s throat burns at the mention of his name. He wasn’t a big fan of being used as the prime example for when enhancements _didn’t_ work out. 

“Hey,” Hui barks. “Our differences are what make us special. Wooseok’s is just as good as anyone's. Don’t forget that.”

Hongseok nodded, but Wooseok knew he wasn’t convinced. At least Hui felt the need to defend him. 

“I don’t think you should live your life in fear,” Kino says from across the room. “That’s what they would want.”

Hongseok seems to agree, but Wooseok doesn’t even know who this vague enemy of theirs even is. It was true that there was a lot of sometimes-false information out there about the enhanced, but Wooseok never had really seen it as a malicious act. It was a response to people already being afraid. 

“You’re right. I know,” Hongseok agrees finally, though the reluctance in his voice couldn’t be understated. “I’ll tell her.”

There’s a sea of encouragement from everyone, then the meeting trudges on. Wooseok tried to focus on what people are saying, but he can’t help but feel on edge. He’d never been surrounded by so many people with powers before, and everything they said made him think of himself again. Wooseok wished he knew if that was normal or if he was self-absorbed. 

“You guys wanna hear something crazy?” Shinwon asks suddenly after Jinho finishes complaining about how his mom likes his sister better than him because she doesn’t have a power. 

Everyone nods in response, but Wooseok especially. He was hoping someone would finally say something that wasn’t depressing. 

“So, my boss’s ex-wife dropped off their daughter at the office yesterday, and my boss sent me to go get her from the lobby and help her to our floor. Not a big deal, right? I ride down, get her, take her to the conference room and she just plays on her iPad while she waits for her dad,” Shinwon explains. It sounded like he was creating the premise for a book or movie. Wooseok felt Shinwon’s seemingly natural flair for the dramatic made him a good story teller. “Only, around ten minutes later, I’m thinking about how I need to get up to go borrow my coworker’s stapler, and then it’s just in my hand.”

“Oh, fuck,” Hui whispers. 

“I know!” Shinwon exclaims. “I realize I accidentally stole someone’s _difference_, and, like the dumbass I am, start trying to figure out which of my coworkers I touched, thinking there’s somebody else like me in my department.”

Wooseok bit back a smile. Shinwon was lovable in a goofy, endearing way. 

“Then, I remember that I held the little girl’s hand when I was walking her to the elevator,” Shinwon recalls. “I guess I didn’t feel the transfer because she’s so young her power isn’t properly developed. I sneaked back into the conference room to return it, but I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t even know if my boss knows she’s telekinetic.” 

“What if your boss is different?” Changgu asks with a gasp. 

“I’ve never absorbed anything from him, but stronger powers are hard to take unintentionally,” Shinwon explains. “So, if he is, he must be the human torch or something.”

“Can you take Wooseok’s without trying?” Changgu asks. Shinwon shrugs, then gently brushed his hand against Wooseok’s arm. Nothing happens. 

“Guess not. It doesn’t happen every time I touch someone with a difference, though. Maybe if I actually touched him on accident,” Shinwon hypothesizes. Wooseok bit the inside of his cheek. He felt like a prop more than a person in this meeting. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Wooseok says, focusing his eyes on Shinwon. Shinwon nods. “How did you discover your power if it only works when you touch enhanced people? And when?”

“Oh my god. Okay, so,” Shinwon enthuses, twisting himself around to completely face Wooseok. “Picture this: you’re sixteen. It’s the first day of school. You are being forced to take an extremely awkward gym class. The coach assigns you a stretching partner. _Just_ as you finish stretching, you start to hear your classmates' thoughts. You believe yourself to be a telepath. You’re freaking out. You go home, read everything you can on the internet about it and start planning how to tell your parents. The next day, you stretch with your partner again, and the thoughts stop. You freak out again, wondering if you were hallucinating that entire time. Then, your stretching partner leans over and tells you _he’s_ the mind reader, and you’re an idiot.”

“I love that story,” Hui says with a laugh. “I just discovered my power through a boombox and pure laziness.” 

“I thought I was just unusually static-y until my sister asked me to help close the clasp on a bracelet she was wearing. I electrocuted her,” Wooseok admits. Everyone laughs except for Kino. 

“Did it hurt her?” he asks. Wooseok nods. 

“Not like, seriously. Her arm just stung for a while. She’s okay, forgave me, all that,” Wooseok assures him. 

“That must’ve been terrifying for you,” Kino says. Wooseok feels all gooey inside seeing Kino so worried about him and his sister. It hadn’t been a big deal; his sister was most upset about having to cut her hair into a bob to deal with the charred ends.

“It was just shocking more than anything,” Wooseok admits. Hongseok and Changgu glance at each other before both bursting into laughter. “What?”

“It was _Shocking_,” Changgu points out with a big grin. Wooseok blinks at him in disbelief. A _dad joke_? “Sorry, sorry. We just love puns.”

Wooseok rolls his eyes, and the subject soon changes. Before long, Hui is clapping his hands together to signal they were ready to wrap up. People begin to say their goodbyes and exit the room, but Wooseok is forced to linger. He had paper work and a probation officer to satisfy, after all. 

“Uh, Hui,” Wooseok says quietly, tapping his shoulder as he gathered the folding chairs and placed them back on the cart. 

“Hey,” Hui replies with a smile. “What’s up?”

“I, um, need something signed and I was just wondering if that’s your job or—”

“It is!” Hui sings, taking a pen out of his jacket pocket and clicking it open. “One of the perks of being a licensed group leader.”

“A _license_? You took a class to do that?” Wooseok asked. He hadn’t intended for it to sound quite so snarky, but all Hui had really done was call on people and provide his opinion. They mostly just talked like they were friends. 

“He sure did,” Shinwon interjects with a laugh, leaning his head on top of Hui’s. “That’s twenty hours of training right there.” 

“Shut up,” Hui snaps, shoving him away. Shinwon sticks his tongue out at him, then relocated to the other side of the room to annoy Kino instead. “We used to have a _real_ group leader that was, like, a therapist, but we drove him insane and he quit. We were supposed to disband the group after that, but we still wanted to meet up. There are a bunch of rules about formal congregations of enhanced people, though, so I just got the license.”

Wooseok nods, handing Hui the paper to sign. He couldn’t imagine liking your support group so much you’d be willing to sit through twenty hours of classes just to keep attending it. 

Hui leans over the nearest table and happily signs his name before filling out his information so he can be contacted if necessary. 

“There you go,” he says, passing Wooseok back the form. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with, Wooseok.”

“Thanks. I will,” Wooseok agrees, shoving the paper into his bag. He turns to leave, but Hui stops him. 

“Listen, we’re really happy to have you here. I know things have to be weird right now, and you can always lean on us,” Hui offers. “We may seem goofy, but we really do care—”

“Thanks,” Wooseok repeats. He didn’t have anything against any of these guys. He thought they seemed nice. He just wasn’t ready to open up to them, and he really doubted he would before the end of these sessions. “I’ll see you next week.”

With that, Wooseok leaves.


	2. Week Two: Popcorn

The next week, Wooseok is even less motivated to return to the _Rose Valley Support Group for Enhanced Individuals_. He stays in his bed as long as he can manage before the prospect of _jail_ scares him out the door. 

When he finally approaches the right room at the community center, he is the last to arrive again, and his only choice for a seat is the same one next to Shinwon. Though Shinwon could be overwhelming, a part of Wooseok is relieved. He didn’t want to deal with trying to decide where to sit. Shinwon even beams at him when he arrives. 

“Back for round two?” Shinwon says. Wooseok nods. 

“You know, I thought about ditching, but I just had to come back to see if you’re like this all the time,” Wooseok jokes. Shinwon puts his hand over his heart like he’s hurt. 

“You’ll find that this is just my personality,” Shinwon informs him just before Hui scurries over to them, holding a water bottle and focusing on Shinwon like he had tunnel vision. He didn’t even acknowledge Wooseok’s existence. 

“Do you have any Advil, Won?” Hui asks, rubbing the side of his head with his index finger. 

“Yeah, of course,” Shinwon confirms, reaching into his bag and digging around for a bit. He eventually pulls out a small, white bottle and hands it to Hui. Hui empties out more pills than any one person should take in perhaps an entire day, then pops them into his mouth and swallows them easily. Wooseok tried not to let his shock be visible on his face. Shinwon just looks up at Hui, holding onto his wrist so he can’t walk away. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Hui says, pushing his hand away. Shinwon frowns. 

“Hui—”

“I’m fine, okay? Trust me, you’d know if it was a big deal,” Hui insists. Shinwon nods, letting Hui return to where he had been before on the other side of the room. Shinwon just watches Hui for a few moments, then realizes Wooseok had been, obviously, listening to them. 

“But, yeah. It’s just how I am,” Shinwon repeats, electing to ignore the encounter altogether. Wooseok wants to ask more questions, but he assumes Shinwon would’ve told him what was wrong instead of playing it off if he had wanted to share.

“Alright!” Hui says from across the room. “Who wants to start us off? Anything new this week, guys?”

Kino’s hand jolts into the air. Wooseok held back a dreamy sigh. How could someone be cute when getting excited about sharing at a support group? Wooseok needed to get a grip. He _needed_ to. 

“Alright, Kino, take it away,” Hui allows with a tiny smile. Wooseok wonders if he's not the only one who thinks Kino was cute. 

“Someone brought a chameleon into the lab today,” he practically squeals, “and I got alone time with her.”

“Alone time...?” Wooseok asks, though he hadn’t totally meant to say that out loud. He supposed Kino had been too good to be true. 

“That means I got to talk to her!” Kino clarifies. “She was so nice! I don’t get to meet a lot of reptiles—”

“You can’t talk to animals when other people are around?” Wooseok ponders. He didn’t know if he was even allowed to ask questions like this, but he needed to know (because he was curious about other enhanced people and definitely _not_ in the interest of accuracy in his daydreams about Kino). 

“I can,” he admits, “but the conversations are verbal. Normals would overhear me talking to a chameleon and the chameleon hissing back.”

Wooseok realized that made sense, and he certainly preferred it to any alternative reasons he could imagine as to why someone could want to be left alone with a reptile. 

“Cool. Sorry for interrupting,” Wooseok says softly. 

“That’s okay!” Kino affirmed. Wooseok resists the urge to melt. “Anyway, I can die happy now.”

“Dude, we need to take you to the zoo,” Yuto decides suddenly. “Holy fuck, I need to know what giraffes are thinking.”

“That you’re short,” Jinho sings. Wooseok could tell he liked the idea of having a being bigger than the tall guys around. 

“Okay, Napoleon,” Yuto quips back. Jinho gasps. 

“Napoleon was average height for his era, asshole,” Jinho snaps. 

“Are you so sensitive about being five foot nothing that you’re willing to defend a dude who tried to colonize like two entire continents?” Hongseok asks. Jinho purses his lips together. 

“You know, I’m gonna take that last one in stride and say no,” Jinho declares. “I don’t want to be associated with Napoleon.”

“That’s big of you,” Changgu says so weakly Wooseok almost doesn’t catch his pun. Hongseok, of course, giggles and hits Changgu’s shoulder. 

“Fuck you, guys. Isn’t this a _support_ group? Who says my height isn’t related to my difference?” Jinho suggests. 

“Exhibit A,” Hongseok enthuses, gesturing both hands at Wooseok. “Do you need Exhibit B? There are a few options—”

“I get it. Die,” Jinho orders. Hui practically hisses, as though he was trying to talk to Kino's chameleon friend. 

“Enough!” he snaps. “Can someone else please share?”

“I, um, have something,” Yanan says finally. Kino’s ears perk up, leaning over to touch Yanan’s knee gently. Wooseok figured Kino was surprised; Yanan didn’t really talk much.

“Let’s hear it,” Hui confirms. 

“I realized I can make other things intangible,” Yanan announces. “Like, besides myself.”

“Really?” Kino sings. Yanan nods. He digs in his pocket for something to use as an example. Kino sees him struggle, and hands him a stress ball from his bag. Yanan squeezes it tight, then opens his eyes wide. 

“Who wants to test it?” Yanan asks. 

“What are you gonna do with it?” Jinho asks, crossing his arms suspiciously. 

“Depends on who it is,” Yanan replies with a smirk. Wooseok can’t help but laugh. Suddenly, Yanan raises his arm. “Heads up, Shinwon!”

Shinwon turns to look at Yanan, and as soon as he realizes what is happening, the ball goes straight through Shinwon’s skull and the wall behind him. Everyone loses it, hollering and praising Yanan. 

“How did you figure that out?” Kino asks. 

“Accidentally did it to my couch and lost my cat,” Yanan admits with a sheepish grin. 

“Not Stuffles!” Kino cries. 

“He’s okay,” Yanan assures him. Kino pouts, clearly still worried about Yanan’s cat. Wooseok bites down on the inside of his cheek, trying to keep from smiling at how cute Kino is. He hated having a crush, and he hated how desperately he wanted to know him. He needed to find a way to talk to him. 

The conversation moves on, but Wooseok just watches Kino. Soon, Hui is doing his usual clap to indicate they were out of time, and, today, Wooseok is a little disappointed. He didn’t have a proper reason to talk to Kino yet. He was going to have to sustain his desperate crush until next week on only Kino telling him how his animal communication skills work. 

Wooseok, holding his log in his hands, approaches Hui as he talks to Changgu. He planned to wait for them to finish their conversation, but Hui simply takes the paper from Wooseok and leans against the wall to sign, without even taking his eyes off Changgu. Hui returns the paper to Wooseok, but just as Wooseok is about to leave, his eyes light up. 

“Oh, Wooseok,” he calls. Wooseok turns back around to look at him. “We’re gonna go to Hongseok’s and watch some of the _Avengers_ movies because Changgu’s never seen them. Kinda required viewing for those of us with the hero gene. Do you want to come?” 

Wooseok swallowed. _We_? Did that include Kino? He would come in a second if Kino was coming. That meant Wooseok could finally get a chance to talk to him. Wooseok wants to ask Hui about him, but he couldn’t exactly reveal to Hui the presence of a cute boy dictated whether he wanted to hang out with the group. So, Wooseok decides to take the leap. 

“Yeah, that’d be fun,” Wooseok agrees. Hui smiles. 

“Grab a chair! Let’s get out of here quick,” Hui enthuses. 

A few moments later, everything is packed up and everyone except Hui and Wooseok has gone their separate ways. Hui had promised Wooseok a ride, so Wooseok simply waits idly by as Hui locks the door to their room at the community center. 

“Hongseok lives pretty close by here,” Hui explains, leading him out to his car. “It’s only a three minute drive.”

“Do you guys do this sort of thing a lot?” Wooseok asks. Hui nods. 

“I’d say after most meetings _somebody_ has plans you can tag along to, if that’s your thing,” Hui decides. “We’re all pretty close.”

“Doesn’t that kind of go against the whole point?” Wooseok asks. Weren’t you supposed to go to these kinds of groups to talk to people you _didn’t_ know, that way you wouldn’t fear them judging you?

“I’ve come to realize that we all kinda needed each other more than we needed a formal group,” Hui admits. “We all showed up to these meetings looking for someone to talk to who understood what it was like to be different. I had plenty of friends before I started coming here, but they just don’t _get it_, even if they try.”

Wooseok nods. He felt the same way. His mom was great. His sister had forgiven him a hundred times. When it came to how he felt about the incident, though, they would never understand. 

“It’s more a club than anything,” Hui confesses with a tiny laugh. Wooseok nods. “Hopefully your keeper doesn’t figure that out.” 

“My _keeper_?” Wooseok asks, practically snorting in surprise at Hui’s word choice. 

“Yeah, I don’t know. He called me to make sure my signature was real, and the first words out of his mouth were _probation officer_. I didn’t really like that,” Hui explains. “So I renamed him.”

“I’m sure he loved that,” Wooseok mumbles sarcastically. Hui shrugs. 

“He seemed fine. He asked how you are,” Hui recalls. “I thought that was nice.”

“I think that’s his job,” Wooseok laughs. They finally approach Hui’s car, a completely nondescript Subaru, and Hui clicks the button on his keys to unlock it. 

“Maybe he does this work because he cares,” Hui hypothesizes. “It takes a lot out of someone, you know.”

“I’ll remember that next time I’m being forced to meet with him to discuss whether I’m an upstanding member of society or not,” Wooseok grumbles as he crawls into Hui’s passenger seat. Once Wooseok is in his car, the first thing he notices is a silver chain hanging from his rear view mirror. A photo depicting Hui with Shinwon, Kino and Hongseok hung from the end of it. 

“You guys really are close,” Wooseok observes. Hui nods with a smile as he starts his car’s engine. 

“I know it sounded cheesy when Shinwon said that thing last time about this being a family, but he meant it. And I mean it, too,” Hui explains. “People think you can’t choose your family, but they’re wrong. I chose mine.”

Wooseok bit his lip softly. These people were codependent on each other and showed a level of affection beyond what Wooseok could understand. He didn’t even know the middle name of his closest friend growing up. Meanwhile, Wooseok wouldn’t be surprised if Shinwon and Hui knew each other’s social security numbers. 

“I’m sorry if that sounds ridiculous or like we’re the X-Men or whatever it is Hongseok says,” Hui appeals. “You don’t have to see us that way if you don’t want to. I just want you to know that you’re welcome to if you need to.”

Wooseok just nods. He didn’t know what to say. Hui seemed to overwhelm him with every sentence that came out of his mouth. 

A single EDM song of questionable quality later, they arrive at Hongseok’s complex. It was completely dark outside, but Hui leads Wooseok around to Hongseok’s unit with ease. Wooseok wants to ask if the night vision is what’s helping him or simply the fact he’d been there before. It was probably both. 

When they reach Hongseok’s door, Wooseok prepares himself for Hui to knock, but instead Hui simply turns the knob and lets himself in. 

“We’re here!” Hui chimes, closing the door behind Wooseok before pulling his shoes off. 

The pair are greeted by Changgu and Hongseok, but they’re the only people in the apartment as far as Wooseok can tell. _Fuck_. 

“I didn’t expect to see you attending extra curriculars so soon,” Hongseok admits as Wooseok sits down on one of the couches in his living room. 

“I really like these movies,” Wooseok lies. He couldn’t very well admit he had come in hopes of seeing someone that wasn’t even there. 

“You do?” Hongseok asks, entire face brightening at the thought of having someone new to discuss Marvel movies with. “Who’s your favorite Avenger?”

“Thor,” Wooseok says dryly. Hongseok stops for a minute, then laughs. Thor had been Wooseok’s favorite most of his life, but he certainly looked like a fool saying that. 

“It okay. I’m the same way,” Hongseok offers. “Iron Man is my favorite.” 

“When did you become a billionaire with a metal heart?” Hui asks, sitting next to Wooseok. 

“Not that. Our power is the same,” Hongseok argues. “We’re both technology gods.”

“His isn’t an enhancement. He’s just actually smart,” Hui points out with a laugh. Hongseok scowls. 

“Fuck you. I’m Iron Man,” Hongseok barks. Changgu just laughs and watches them, seemingly clueless to the actual content of the conversation. “We need to get Wooseok a really badass weapon.”

“You think I should just carry around a fucking hammer?” Wooseok asks. Hongseok nods enthusiastically. 

“Grow out your hair a little, channel your electricity through the hammer... It wouldn’t come back to you, but you’d look like a badass,” Hongseok suggests. 

“Who am I, then? Where’s the sound Avenger?” Hui grumbles. 

“Your power is definitely more X-Men than Avenger,” Hongseok informs him. Hui scoffs. 

“That’s both the nerdiest and most pretentious thing you’ve ever said to me,” Hui snaps. Hongseok snips back about how it wasn’t pretentious, and the two begin to bicker while Changgu encourages both sides. Wooseok thinks he must just like the drama. 

Three hours later, Wooseok is squished between Hongseok and Hui as they watch the second _Avengers_ movie. Hui had made popcorn and immediately passed the bowl off to Wooseok, effectively making him the center of everyone’s attention. At some point during the first movie Yuto had arrived at the apartment, but he’d crawled onto the couch no one else was sitting on and sprawled out under a blanket. Changgu had then constructed a sleeping pallet on the floor out of extra pillows and blankets. He even laid on it upside-down so he could really focus on the movie. 

Wooseok wouldn’t outright admit it, but he was having a good time. Changgu asked a lot of stupid questions and Hui had no concept of personal space, but Wooseok didn’t regret coming, even if Kino wasn’t here. 

“Should we stop after this one? Or are we going all the way?” Hongseok asks, looking past Wooseok at Hui. Hui scrunches up his face in thought. 

“I honestly just like the distraction,” Hui admits. “But if you want us to go—”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Hongseok insists. “You guys can stay as long as you want.”

“I’ll finally see _End Game_!” Changgu sings from the front of the room. 

“The movies aren’t going to make sense to you after this one,” Hongseok confesses with a laugh. “You need to have seen all the other individual movies, too.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” Changgu asks, spinning around to look at Hongseok. 

“Maybe,” Hongseok teases back.

“Kino and Yanan just parked,” Yuto says as he stares at his phone. “Kino’s mad you didn’t invite him to begin with.”

Wooseok feels all of his internal organs start to warm. _Kino_? He suddenly resented Hui and Hongseok for sitting beside him. He needed his space so that, whenever Kino arrived, he would sit beside Wooseok. 

“He hates these movies,” Hongseok points out. “He literally told me he would rather _die_ than see _Doctor Strange_ with me when it came out.” 

“That’s not fair. You know how he feels about Bandersnatch Cabbagepatch,” Hui argues, reaching an arm over to shove Hongseok. 

“That’s true. I tried to get him to watch _Sherlock_ with me once, and he made me watch _Elementary_ instead,” Changgu recalls. 

“Why?” Wooseok asks. 

“Because he likes Lucy Liu,” Changgu replies simply. Wooseok scowls. 

“I meant what’s his problem with—”

“Hellooooooo,” Yanan sings as he forces open the door, cutting off Wooseok’s thought and effectively ending their conversation.

Kino follows Yanan in, and Wooseok feels like he has no choice but to find a way to sit next to him. It wasn’t like he could randomly start up conversation with someone he barely knew who was sitting across the room during a movie. 

“You’re late!” Hui scolds playfully. Yanan ignores him, walking right past the TV and crawling onto the couch next to Yuto. Yuto reluctantly makes room for him _after_ the fact. 

“How can we be late if you didn’t invite us until you’d already watched an entire movie?” Kino asks, sitting next to Changgu but turning himself around to look at the others. “You know I live on the other side of town. It takes Yanan longer to come get me than to drive here.”

“I am _such_ a good friend,” Yanan says exhaustedly, leaning his back against Yuto so he can face the TV. 

“I love you,” Kino sings back. Yanan waves him off like it’s no big deal. Wooseok thinks Yanan is probably right about being a good friend. He was willing to go out of his way to retrieve Kino just so he could come hang out with everyone, after all. 

Wooseok decides its time to make a move, and passes the popcorn bowl to Hui. He stretches his legs out, letting out a tiny yawn. 

“I’m gonna go sit with Changgu so I can lay down,” Wooseok announces. No one responds. Wooseok immediately worries that was an awkward thing to say, but he can’t take it back now. He just joins Changgu and Kino on the palate in silence. 

“Kino, come hold the popcorn,” Hui whines. Kino immediately jumps to his feet, stealing Wooseok’s spot _and_ job in seconds. 

Wooseok desperately wants to vocalize to someone how _stupid_ he is, but he can’t very well say that. Instead, he lays on his stomach beside Changgu and becomes the person who has to answer all his questions. 

“So Ultron is an alien?” Changgu asks, in the middle of the final battle, as though he hadn’t watched the entire rest of the film at all. 

“No, he’s a robot,” Wooseok responds. 

“Ultron and Jarvis are the same?”

“No.”

“But Vision is Ultron?”

“No, Vision is Jarvis.”

“But wasn’t the body meant for Ultron?”

It continues like that all night, through all four movies. Wooseok’s solace in the event is that he can occasionally hear Kino laughing at one of Hui’s jokes.


	3. Week Three: Lights Out

In light of the thunderstorms that had been ravaging the city for the past few days and the routinely leaky ceiling in the old community center they normally congregated in, Hui offers to host everyone in his own apartment. Wooseok couldn’t help but be excited; he wanted to see how the others lived. Plus, Hui’s apartment was only five minutes from his own.   
  
The building itself was old in a charming way, which is about what Wooseok expected from Hui. He wasn’t about to _slum_ it, but he wasn’t the type to live somewhere too fancy either. This was a happy medium.   
  
Hui’s apartment is on the fourth floor, and the old building meant there was no elevator. By the time Wooseok actually reaches the door, his joints ache. Being a beanpole of a human meant his knees never had really recovered from growing at exponential speeds as a child. He figures he can just wait outside for a few minutes so he doesn’t embarrass himself in front of the guys.   
  
Tha goes wrong when he feels a warm hand on his shoulder. He turns around and is face to face with Kino, as bright-eyed and smiley as ever.   
  
“Are you okay?” Kino asks, gently pressing a hand to his cheek to check and see if he had a fever. “The weather has been horrible lately. It’s so bad for your health—”  
  
“I’m fine,” Wooseok mumbles, pulling back so he could avoid Kino touching him without pushing him away. A part of him regretted it immediately; wasn’t this the kind of moment he needed to make the most of?  
  
“Okay,” Kino whispers. “Let me know if there’s any way I can help you. Hui actually keeps a lot of random over-the-counter meds in his apartment. He hasn’t really talked about it since you’ve been coming around, but he gets awful headaches from messing with sound. He’ll take anything if he thinks it’ll help make it stop.”   
  
“Oh,” Wooseok says dumbly. He didn’t know what to say to that. Kino just clears his throat, clearly realizing he’d caused a lull in the conversation.   
  
“Um, my point was just that I’m sure he’ll give you some Aspirin if you need it,” Kino explains. Wooseok shakes his head.   
  
“I’m fine,” Wooseok insists. Kino nods, flashing a gentle smile. Wooseok supposed he thought it would comfort him, and, if that was the case, it did its job.  
  
“You ready to go in?” Kino asks.   
  
“Yeah,” Wooseok replies. Kino leads the way, not even bothering to knock on Hui’s door, and instead just letting himself in.   
  
“Me and Wooseok are here!” Kino sings. Hui had set up a mixture of chairs, ranging from dining to folding to the one from his desk. Wooseok thought it was an admirable effort, especially since he’d found exactly enough for their purposes. Hui also appeared to have pushed his furniture back against the walls to make room for everyone, though Wooseok had never seen the room normally before.   
  
“You guys come together?” Hongseok asks, clicking his tongue like he’d just discovered something juicy. Kino only shakes his head, removing his raincoat and throwing it over a tiny rack Hui had pulled out to keep his floor from becoming a sea of wet clothing.   
  
“Bumped into each other on the way up!” Kino clarifies. “Where is everybody?”  
  
Wooseok squints, looking around the apartment. Hui and Shinwon were in his kitchen, Yanan was sprawled out on the couch, and Hongseok and Changgu we’re sitting in the chair circle already. That amounted to seven, meaning Wooseok, for the first time since he’d joined, was not the last to arrive to a meeting.   
  
“Jinho’s power went out while he was getting ready so he’s running late,” Hui explains, leaning over the bar that connected the living room and kitchen. “I haven’t heard from Yuto. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon, though.”  
  
“You don’t have him on Find My Friends? Amateur,” Yanan scoffs, reaching for his phone. He swipes around for a moment, then puts it back down. “Yuto is about a block away. Looks like he walked, like the idiot he is.”  
  
“Do you have that for all of us?” Changgu asks, knitting his eyebrows together in worry.   
  
“Not you. I don’t care where you are,” Yanan says coolly. Changgu’s face falls, but Yanan breaks character and lets out a tiny giggle a few seconds later. “Don’t worry about it. I just turned Yuto’s on because he’s _always_ late.”  
  
“Honestly, solid idea,” Hui admits. “You should turn on Wooseok’s, too.”  
  
“You don’t trust me?” Wooseok asks. Hui shakes his head.   
  
“I trust you,” he begins. He pauses for a moment, then can’t resist tearing Wooseok back down. “To be late all the time, that is.”  
  
“Okay. Thanks, dad,” Wooseok mocks, taking his hours log out of his coat as he takes it off. He walks over to the bar and slides it to Hui.   
  
“Can I at least be a cool uncle? Like, I’m the dude who takes you to your first R-rated movie and gives you a beer at Thanksgiving,” Hui fantasizes, taking a pen out of his pocket and signing Wooseok’s sheet to indicate he showed up for the group that week.   
  
“_A beer_? Singular? Wooseok is like two humans stacked together. You might as well give him a root beer,” Shinwon laughs, leaning over Hui’s shoulder to inspect the sheet. Hui puts a hand directly on his face and shoves him away. Wooseok bit back a smile. Hui was actually like a cool older brother, who reluctantly drives you around before you get your license and lets you come to his cool parties even though you’re a dork. Wooseok couldn’t tell _him_ that, though.   
  
“Yeah, grandpa,” Wooseok agrees. “I can steal my own Thanksgiving beer.”   
  
“I’ll remember that!” Hui snaps, handing him his sheet back. “_Good luck_ getting drunk this year on my watch. I catch you with a beer, and I’m telling your mom.”  
  
“Okay, this whole thing is getting weird even for me,” Wooseok snaps playfully. Hui laughs, just shaking his head as Wooseok walks away to join the circle, which was more of an oval on this particular night. Kino had sat in the furthest chair so he could talk to Yanan, while Hongseok and Changgu were on the opposite side. Wooseok wanted to sit next to Kino. Every bone in his body was pulling him in that direction. But what would he even say while they waited for Yuto and Jinho? He and Kino had barely spoken to each other.  
  
“Shinwon, where are you sitting?” Wooseok calls into the kitchen.   
  
“Next to Hui. He needs to feel my judgment over these light-wash overalls he just bought radiating off of me all evening,” Shinwon informs him. Wooseok sighs. Those two never stopped with the theatricals. Still, the answer is satisfying enough, and he looks for the chair with Hui’s clipboard. When he finds it, he skips a chair for Shinwon and then sits down. Coincidentally, he’s only a seat apart from Kino.   
  
Just as Wooseok is giving himself a mental pep-talk so he can psych himself up to talk to Kino, Yuto comes barreling through the door, drenched in water.   
  
“You’re joking,” Hui groans.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Yuto cries. “I’m so cold.”  
  
Kino quickly springs up from his chair, ducking into the bathroom and returning with a towel to dry Yuto and the floor off.   
  
“You’re an idiot,” Yanan barks, rolling over on his side.   
  
“It wasn’t that far of a walk! I didn’t realize how hard it was raining,” Yuto says in his defense.   
  
“Take off your shoes and jacket, Jesus,” Kino grumbles. Yuto follows Kino’s orders, but his pants are just as wet as the rest of his ensemble. Kino groans in frustration at Yuto's incompetence. “Pants, too.”  
  
“No way!” Yuto whines.   
  
“Aren’t you wearing boxers? We can put them in Hui’s dryer so you don’t get pneumonia,” Kino snaps back. Wooseok almost _liked_ when Kino was bossy. He guessed it was just cool how Kino knew exactly what he wanted to happen and how to make sure it did. Wooseok wasn’t really like that. He mostly just went with the flow.   
  
Yuto pauses for a moment at Kino’s reasoning, then grumbles in agreement. Then, Kino takes all of his clothes and disappears into the back of the apartment. Hui barely reacts to Kino walking around like he lived there, and before he even returns, Hui has gone back to talking to Shinwon in the kitchen.   
  
“Okay, okay. Odds of pneumonia are lowered. There’s a chest of blankets in the corner if you want to warm up,” Kino informs Yuto, gesturing to a brown, ornate box shoved up against the wall. Yuto scurries off, eventually taking a blanket to use as a makeshift skirt.   
  
The meeting slowly starts to morph into something that resembles their usual meetups while they wait for Jinho. Unfortunately for Wooseok, this means Yanan takes the spot between him and Kino, meaning his moment had effectively passed.   
  
Instead, Wooseok spends his next ten minutes wondering why Kino knew his way around Hui’s apartment so well and becoming increasingly jealous. Maybe Hui had to move the meetings here a lot. Maybe they were just close friends. _Maybe they’re hooking up_. Wooseok does his best to shove the thought out of his brain, but it keeps circling back. He didn’t want it to be true. What kind of cool older brother is sleeping with your crush?   
  
When Jinho finally arrives, his presence is met with sarcastic applause from Hongseok and genuine applause from Changgu. He flips them both off for good measure.   
  
“God, I’m so happy to be somewhere with light,” Jinho chirps, taking in the artificial lighting from above as he removed his rain gear. “It’s a monsoon out there.”  
  
Then, in what Wooseok can only assume is God having another laugh at their expense, the power in Hui’s apartment cuts out. Jinho screams. Loudly.   
  
Soon, the room fills with light from everyone’s phone flashlights.   
  
“Okay, this isn’t so bad,” Kino decides, glancing around. Wooseok didn’t believe a word he said. It almost seemed like he was scared of the dark.   
  
“It’ll be like we’re telling ghost stories,” Hui decides.   
  
“Or Wooseok could fix it,” Hongseok suggests. The room goes dead quiet. They all knew that Wooseok _could_ help, of course, but it was a sore subject.   
  
“That’s definitely against my probation,” Wooseok informs him. Hongseok scoffs.   
  
“I’m not saying you have to fix the whole complex. Just fire up the lamps that way we don’t have to hold our flashlights to our faces like we’re twelve and at summer camp,” Hongseok clarifies, gesturing to the various sources of light around Hui’s apartment. Wooseok swallows. He wanted to fix this for everyone, especially Kino, who held onto Yanan’s arm for safety   
  
“I guess I can do that,” he says softly. In a moment, the light fixture above them and a couple of lamps around the apartment flicker to life.   
  
“Praise thee,” Jinho groans, sitting down in the final empty chair near Hongseok.   
  
“Alright,” Hui enthuses. “Who wants to share now that we have the power of Electro and anime on our side?”   
  
Wooseok rolls his eyes. _Electro_. If he could eradicate one part of the trial from existence, it would be that stupid name. He supposed it was better than his real name being plastered everywhere, but he definitely wouldn’t have chosen something so lame for himself.   
  
“I do,” Changgu says, raising his hand halfheartedly. Hui gestures that the floor is his. Changgu pauses for a moment, then sighs. “I did something not great.”  
  
“You _finally_ got a billionaire to fall in love with you,” Shinwon enthuses. Changgu shakes his head.   
  
“Not quite,” he says. “I was out getting coffee on my lunch break, and the people behind me in line were these two teenagers. I could tell the girl _really_ liked her friend, and I just wanted them to be happy—”  
  
“Changgu, you _didn’t_,” Kino exclaims, covering his mouth with his hand. Changgu nods ashamedly.   
  
“There are worse things I could’ve done, right? They’re gonna go on a date now, and maybe he’ll realize he really likes her—”  
  
“Or maybe he’ll wonder why he’s on a date with her to begin with,” Jinho teases. Changgu’s face falls.   
  
“You think?” he asks weakly. Jinho nods.   
  
“They’re teenagers, Changgu. They wouldn’t be together forever even without your unsolicited interference,” he nags. “She’ll be onto the next apparent love of her life by next month.”  
  
Changgu frowns. Wooseok felt a little bad for Changgu. He hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.   
  
“You know what they say,” Yanan says, voice oozing with bitterness. “The best use of your power is one that makes absolutely no difference in people’s lives.”  
  
“Bad,” Hui scolds. Yanan rolls his eyes in response.   
  
“He’s not wrong. There’s a reason the poster child for enhancements right now is some trust fund baby who runs fast,” Hongseok points out. “Imagine if she wanted to compete in the Olympics. People would _flip_.”  
  
“Wooseok’s the real poster child for us nowadays,” Yuto argues, “or the anti-poster child, I guess.”  
  
“I’d rather be represented by Wooseok,” Jinho says decidedly. “Someone who actually has a power worth something and actually knows what it’s like to struggle with it? Sign me up.”  
  
Wooseok tried to focus on something besides the conversation. He knew that he was a big part of everything going on with enhanced people right now, but he wished he wasn’t. He appreciated the positive things they all said. He just hated this was his reality.   
  
“Well, Changgu, I don’t think what you did was that bad,” Kino says, glancing at Wooseok. He seemed to catch on easily whenever the group was talking about Wooseok in a way he wasn’t comfortable with. Wooseok sees this as his effort to change the subject, so he offers Kino a tiny nod of thanks. Kino smiles back in acknowledgment.   
  
Wooseok wants to punch himself in the face for how his heart flutters in response.   
  
The meeting continues with arguments about the morality of influencing the feelings of strangers. That sprawls a larger conversation about whether you should use _any_ power on _anyone_ who doesn’t specifically consent. Jinho, of course, didn’t understand how he was supposed to use his power with consent. This goes on and leads to other discussions about what had happened to everyone throughout the week.   
  
About an hour and a half later, everyone is done sharing, but no one wants to leave Hui’s apartment. It was still raining like hell outside, and nobody was sure if their own homes had power. Instead of trying their luck, everyone agrees just to hang out in Hui’s apartment for a while.   
  
As soon as Hui officially calls the meeting adjourned, everyone breaks off into smaller groups. Wooseok didn’t know where to go. Shinwon was the easiest to approach, but Wooseok felt like a burden constantly sitting next to him and forcing himself into Shinwon’s space. So, instead of choosing, he slides down the furthest wall in the apartment and takes out his phone, opting to focus on keeping the lights up without blowing a fuse. Maybe if he got really comfortable, he would read some manga.   
  
Wooseok has his eyes closed, counting softly to himself as he focused on the electricity in the room, when he hears someone sit down next to him, so close their knees are touching.   
  
“Hey,” Kino whispers. Wooseok eyes snap open, and for a split second the electricity drains from the room again. Everyone complains, but lets it go when Wooseok quickly fixes his mistake. “Oh, sorry. Should I go?”  
  
“No! No,” Wooseok assures him, trying to keep himself calm. The lights going off every time Kino spoke to him would be a pretty clear indication of his crush. Kino gives him a tiny smile, and they just sit in silence for a few moments. Somehow, Wooseok feels completely comfortable that way.   
  
After a while, Kino gently nudges Wooseok’s wrist. Wooseok raises his eyebrows, but he lets Kino grab his hand anyway. What was he going to do? Say no to the really cute boy? As if. Kino pulls his hand into his lap and softly traces the lines on his palm with his finger while they listen to the storm rage outside.   
  
“Are you allowed to talk or do you have to focus completely?” Kino asks. Wooseok feels his face flush. He was glad it was as dark as it was in here.   
  
“I can talk,” Wooseok confirms. “Just tell me if you feel the lights dimming.”  
  
Kino smiles, but continues to stare straight down. Wooseok just tries to forget about Kino touching him, instead watching the others. Hui, Shinwon and Yuto were playing paper football on the kitchen table a ways away. Yanan had knocked out on the couch. Jinho and Hongseok were splitting a pair of AirPods to listen to music together without having to sit _too_ close. Changgu was sitting in front of them, yammering on about something neither Jinho nor Hongseok seemed too invested in.   
  
“Can I ask you something kinda bad?” Kino wonders, not even mustering the strength to look at Wooseok when he said it.   
  
“Bad how?” Wooseok queries back.   
  
“Not totally support group friendly,” Kino clarifies, “or maybe it is. I don’t know. I guess we should talk about it but—”  
  
“Just tell me,” Wooseok decides. Even if he didn’t like the question, he would want to know what Kino wanted to ask him.   
  
“Do you ever get the urge to do something malicious with your powers?” Kino asks. Wooseok swallows hard. He didn’t want to admit it, not to Kino. The answer was yes, of course. He didn’t want to start an electric fire and burn down the city or construct an evil regime, but he’d definitely thought he could’ve dealt with some people who deserved comeuppance. He didn’t want to kill anybody, just fry them a little.   
  
“I don’t know,” Wooseok replies. “I just— I’m not the kind of person who thinks of my difference as a gift. It ruined my life, so sometimes I think maybe I should pay it forward.”   
  
“So you think you should hurt somebody?” Kino asks. Wooseok’s eyes widen, shaking his head.   
  
“I think I should do something to make things even. That’s what people in comic books do, right?” Wooseok reasons. “Maybe I’m not Captain America, though. Maybe I’m the Punisher.”  
  
“That’s dark,” Kino laughs. “I guess I was just curious because I can’t do anything like that. All I can do is tell a dog they’re not a good boy or kill a tree.”  
  
“Have you ever seen the movie _Sky High_?” Wooseok asks suddenly. Kino just continues to laugh, shaking his head.   
  
“Hui said the same thing,” Kino admits. “There’s a girl with my power who ends up really badass in the end or something.”  
  
“Yeah,” Wooseok says quietly. It felt like every conversation he had with Kino led back to Hui. How was he supposed to compete with that? “You and Hui seem really close.”  
  
“I guess so,” Kino agrees with a shrug. Wooseok had to pry. He couldn’t resist.   
  
“You guess so? You walk around this apartment like you live here,” Wooseok points out.   
  
“It’s just...,” Kino trails off quickly. Wooseok didn’t know how to encourage him to continue, but luckily after a few seconds Kino collects his thoughts. “Hui spends most of his free time taking care of us. He works all day, and then his afternoons are reserved for whatever emergencies we have. I guess he thinks we don’t notice, but every time I need him, it’s all I think about.”  
  
“Right,” Wooseok says weakly.   
  
“You’re just picking up on what I’ve learned from trying to be the one who takes care of him, I guess,” Kino explains. “It’s hard to take care of Hui, though. He’s too proud.”  
  
“I could’ve guessed that,” Wooseok admits.   
  
“Guys with thick-headed skulls can find each other quickly,” Kino remarks with a tiny smile.   
  
“I am _not_ thick-headed,” Wooseok snaps.   
  
“You and Hui are two sides of the same, scratched-up coin,” Kino insists. “It’s so obvious.”  
  
“Stop that before I confiscate my hand,” Wooseok jokes. Kino pushes Wooseok’s hand back over to him, not one to let anybody tell him what to do.   
  
“I’ll just go mess with Hui’s hand, then. It’s the same thing,” Kino threatens. Wooseok’s entire face goes hot.   
  
“Hui needs both his hands to play!” Wooseok observes, gesturing over to the intense paper football game that was occurring.   
  
“You underestimate Hui’s constant desire to be physically affectionate with absolutely anybody,” Kino warns him. Wooseok scoffs, grabbing Kino’s hand and lacing his fingers together with his own. Paranoid or not, he wasn’t going to watch Kino snuggle up to Hui anymore.   
  
“Ow!” Kino cries. Wooseok went cold. He’d been focusing so much on the lights that he forgot to maintain his emotional equilibrium. One thought about Kino leaving him to hang out with Hui instead, and Wooseok had accidentally fried a piece of his crush’s skin. Kino flips his hand over to see where Wooseok’s thumb had been on his hand, but doesn’t pull away.   
  
“I’m so sorry,” Wooseok whispers.   
  
“Don’t be sorry,” Kino orders. “This is the tiniest burn I’ve ever seen, and I know you didn’t mean to.”  
  
“I still hurt you,” Wooseok insists, examining the burn for himself. Kino was right, you could barely see it.   
  
“You shouldn’t feel guilty about accidents,” Kino assures him. “Besides, I’ve been kinda wondering what it feels like.”  
  
“That’s a bit masochistic,” Wooseok whispers. Kino laughs.   
  
“I didn’t like it. I was just curious,” Kino insists. “Do you burn a lot of people?”  
  
“No,” Wooseok says blankly. Truth be told, he didn’t touch a lot of people, especially not since the _last_ blackout. Maybe in high school, before his powers had fully developed, he would high-five someone to shock them, but that wasn’t enough to burn anybody. The more he thought about it, the more he realized the only two people he’d ever burned were his mom and sister.   
  
“Well, that makes it special,” Kino laughs, finally pulling his hand away. “Wooseok, you shouldn’t be ashamed of your power. It’s a part of who you are.”  
  
Wooseok feels like an idiot when he can’t muster up a response, but Kino doesn’t seem to mind. That almost makes Wooseok feel worse. Just when Wooseok feels like he has no choice except to change the subject awkwardly, the lights come alive in the apartment.   
  
“Oh, thank god,” Jinho groans. “Is the power back on my side of the city?”  
  
“Twitter says everything’s supposed to be back up now,” Yanan informs him drowsily as he scrolled through his timeline. “Storm should be letting up soon, too.”  
  
“Niiiiiice,” Jinho practically sings. “I love you guys, but I’m out of here.”  
  
“Can we share a cab? I don’t want to fuck with the metro,” Yanan asks, sitting up and pulling his jacket on slowly.   
  
“Yeah,” Jinho confirms. “Changgu, you coming?”  
  
Changgu agrees, and the trio quickly say their goodbyes and disappear out of the door. Wooseok didn’t really have a reason to stay, but it was a Friday night. He didn’t have anywhere else to be.   
  
“I’m gonna head out, too. I’m gonna meet the girl,” Hongseok enthuses. Shinwon raises his eyebrows with a little grin.   
  
“Dude, did you tell her?” Shinwon asks.   
  
“Yep,” he declares happily. “She didn’t care at all. She said maybe it’d be different if I had a power that was violent or whatever, but she doesn’t give a shit if I mess with stoplights.”   
  
Wooseok’s heart sinks. He’d never met Hongseok’s girlfriend and he didn’t know if he ever would, but every confirmation that even people who weren’t threatened by _every_ enhanced person were still threatened by _him_ hurt.   
  
“Ugh, I’m so happy for you!” Kino chirps, crawling to his feet to join the others, who were now all standing around Hui’s table. “I want everyone in this group to fall in love.”  
  
“You want everyone to fall in love period,” Hui teases, poking Kino’s cheek. Wooseok quickly stood up to go stand by everyone else at the sight of _that_.  
  
“Don’t you? People deserve to be happy,” Kino decides. Wooseok bit the inside of his cheek. He got all mushy inside thinking about how optimistic Kino was. Wooseok was a realist at best, but he wished he could see the world the way Kino did. Maybe he wouldn’t be so miserable all the time if he did.   
  
“Maybe not everyone. You guys, though,” Hui agrees. “It would be nice not to have to hear about how life sucks every week.”  
  
“Oh, like you’ve never talked about how life sucks before,” Shinwon snaps. “When the expulsion happened, you spent six months wishing this entire city would explode.”  
  
Wooseok furrowed his eyebrows. _Expulsion_? He’d love to hear how Hui, who appeared to be perfect in every way, had gotten kicked out of a school. Maybe that was mean. Hui had been nothing but nice to him, but Wooseok couldn’t help but be curious. Maybe he’d gotten in a fight or cheated on a test. Wooseok couldn’t really imagine Hui doing either of those things.   
  
“That’s true,” Hui admits with a shrug. “Wooseok, you could’ve made that happen for me! What the fuck, dude?”  
  
“I try not to make anything explode,” Wooseok says with a roll of his eyes.   
  
“Well, you have one strike against you, man,” Yuto points out with a laugh.   
  
“Two. I heard he blew out two different circuits,” Shinwon adds.   
  
“_I_ don’t even know what actually exploded. Just that there was a fire,” Wooseok admits. “I zoned out for most of the trial.”  
  
“What were you even actually charged with?” Hongseok asks blankly.   
  
“Felony vandalism and destruction of government property,” Wooseok replies. “Apparently it wasn’t actually vandalism since it wasn’t _willful_ or whatever. I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even know what vandalism actually is.”  
  
“I went through a vandalism phase in high school,” Yuto admits.   
  
“_What_?” Kino chokes out with a laugh.   
  
“Yeah, I would spray paint U2 all over the place because I thought it sounded like my name but not too obvious,” Yuto explains. “And then I found out that’s a band. So that sucked.”  
  
“A _really_ popular band,” Hui points out with a laugh. “You don’t know Bono?”  
  
“Now I do,” Yuto admits with a sigh. Everyone laughs, and Wooseok is thankful to Yuto for taking the focus off of him. He didn’t know if it was intentional, but he definitely didn’t want to talk about it.   
  
“Okay, okay. I gotta go,” Hongseok declares, pushing his glasses back up his face and glancing at Shinwon and Kino before clearing his throat. “Hey, um, Hui, should you go find Yuto his pants?”   
  
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” Hui confesses, then sets down his soda and goes to the back of his apartment to check and see if Yuto’s pants ever actually dried.   
  
Once he’s gone, Hongseok turns back to the group, as though they'd been who he'd wanted to talk to all along.   
  
“What’s wrong? Shinwon was here early. You’re all lingering,” Hongseok points out.   
  
“The headaches are back,” Shinwon explains. “Don’t worry about it. Me and Kino will handle it."  
  
“I don’t want to force you guys to deal with it every time—”  
  
“I want to,” Shinwon states clearly. “Even if you told me you had no choice but to stay here with him all night, I would be here, too.”  
  
“Shinwon—”  
  
“I’m serious. Go see your girl. I’m gonna distract Hui until he falls asleep and then slip out the door like usual. No big deal,” Shinwon insists. Wooseok bit his lip. _Headaches?_ Like the ones Kino mentioned before? Why was everyone so concerned with them? This entire night was making him realize he didn’t know these people at all. He didn’t know the first thing about Hui, even though he created a whole character for him in his mind as soon as he arrived at his first group meeting   
  
“Okay. Just call me if I can do anything,” Hongseok orders adamantly.   
  
“We won’t. Enjoy your date,” Kino says, shooing him away. Hongseok scowls.   
  
“Hui! I’m gonna head out! Thanks for hosting!” Hongseok calls as he heads toward the door. Hui yells back a muffled _any time!_ and returns with Yuto’s pants just in time to flash Hongseok one of his signature smiles before he exits the apartment.   
  
Yuto squeals lovingly as he’s finally able to redress, and the others laugh. He, too, leaves a few minutes after he’s collected himself. This leaves just Kino, Shinwon and Wooseok in Hui’s apartment.   
  
“You two should be heading out soon,” Shinwon decides, picking up Hui’s soda off of the counter and taking a sip. “Me and Hui are going to watch the Natalie Portman _Star Trek_ movies tonight, so unless you wanna join us—”  
  
“_Star Wars_,” Wooseok corrects gently. Shinwon raises his eyebrows. “Natalie Portman is in _Star Wars_. _Star Trek_ is the one with Spock.”  
  
“So Chris Pine isn’t in these movies?” Hui asks. Wooseok just blinks at them.  
  
“Are you watching _Star Trek_ or _Star Wars_? Natalie Portman is in _Star Wars_, but Chris Pine is in—”  
  
Hui groans loudly.   
  
“Fuck it. Let’s just watch _School of Rock_ again,” Shinwon suggests. Hui nods in agreement. Wooseok can’t believe what he’s hearing. Kino just laughs.   
  
“Fine, fine. I won’t interrupt your tenth viewing of a movie starring Jack Black,” Kino says with a grin. “We’re gonna head out.”  
  
Wooseok assumes _we_ is the two of them, so he quickly heads toward the door to put his shoes on while Kino hugs his friends goodbye. Wooseok wishes he was close enough to anybody to hug them. A few moments later, Kino joins Wooseok. He pulls on his converse easily, then sings a stream of goodbyes to Shinwon and Hui until they leave.   
  
As they walk down the stairs, Wooseok feels his body temperature rising. Should he offer to walk Kino home? He didn’t even know where he lived or if it would stop raining soon. Should he invite Kino to hang out with him at his apartment? What was the course of action for when you and a cute boy left your support group _together_?   
  
“Do you live close by?” Kino wonders, fixing his hair nonchalantly. Wooseok wished Kino was more flustered. That would mean Kino liked him.   
  
“Yeah, only a block away,” Wooseok explains. Kino groans in jealousy.   
  
“I wish I lived down here. My school is on the other side of town, so I picked an apartment there, but I’d rather be close to you guys,” Kino admits.   
  
“Close to _Hui_?” Wooseok asks. Kino just looks at him quizzically.   
  
“What’s your obsession with Hui?” Kino counters, stopping on the landing between the flights of stairs and crossing his arms. Wooseok swallowed back his panic. He needed to learn to censor himself better. “That’s the second time you’ve asked me about him tonight.”  
  
“I’m just curious, I guess,” Wooseok replies weakly. “So much happened before I got here.”  
  
“That doesn’t explain it,” Kino says, narrowing his eyes at Wooseok. “Why Hui?”  
  
“I don’t know, okay?” Wooseok admits. “I just— he leads every meeting, but you guys whisper about him like you’re his caretakers when he’s not in the room. He’s got this whole career and life, but he was supposedly expelled from college. He’s an enigma to me.”  
  
“He was going to music school,” Kino whispers. Wooseok stops, realizing that Kino was actually going to answer his questions. “He was kicked out when they found out about his power because the board felt he had an unfair advantage over other students. He’d dedicated his entire life to music before that. The short version is that he was really sad, and it sucked.”   
  
Wooseok bit his lip. He suddenly felt like an asshole. He had been awaiting juicy gossip about Hui getting in fights, but he’d just been hurt because of his powers, just like Wooseok had.   
  
“The headaches— they’re exactly what I said. Using his power hurts him, physically. We don’t know why. We just know that sometimes it flares up, and he can’t sleep or even think. When it happens, he needs us,” Kino emphasizes. “We’re not trying to exclude you. It just isn’t the best subject matter for Hui or anyone else, for that matter.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Wooseok whispers. “I didn’t— I like Hui. I like all of you. I didn’t mean to— I’m just sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Kino assures him. “Honestly, I wouldn’t like to come to a group that’s all about being open with one another and feel like everyone has secrets, either. Hopefully we can just trust each other now.”  
  
“Yeah, we can,” Wooseok agrees. Kino smiles at him softly, linking their arms together and pulling Wooseok toward the next set of steps.   
  
“Can I walk you home?”  
  
“I’d like that,” Wooseok says softly. 


	4. Week Four: Someplace

By his fourth meeting, Wooseok starts to actually feel comfortable. He’s one of the first to arrive for once, and he helps his secret, one-sided not-so-rival set up the chairs for everyone. When Kino arrives, he even sits right next to Wooseok without Wooseok having to pray he would or anything.   
  
The meeting itself is more of the usual. Hongseok talks about his relationship. Jinho worries his boss has figured out he’s enhanced. Yuto talks about not being able to focus in class because his brain goes wild and he can’t figure out what’s real and what isn’t.   
  
Wooseok had never gotten to actually sit by Kino for a meeting before, so he’d never noticed how invested in each person’s story he was. He seemed to sympathize with everyone in the group so deeply; Wooseok didn’t know how he could do that without getting overwhelmed.   
  
After the meeting ends, Hui hurries over to Kino and Wooseok’s chairs before Kino can even collect his bag and jacket.   
  
“Kino, can you do me a favor?” Hui asks. Kino nods without even asking what it was. Wooseok didn’t think he’d ever done something like that before. Maybe that made him a bad person. Maybe you shouldn’t consider how helping someone will be an inconvenience to your own life. “I have to meet someone across town in half an hour. Can you put away everything and lock up for me?”  
  
“Of course,” Kino confirms, holding his hand out to Hui. Hui passes a key chain to Kino, then presses his own palms together to create tiny prayer hands.   
  
“Thank you, Kino. You are my savior,” Hui sings.   
  
“I know. Get out of here. You’ll be late,” Kino snaps. Hui nods, waving him goodbye before slipping out of the conference room. Kino sighs, turning to Wooseok.   
  
“Do you want to help me?” he asks sweetly, in what Wooseok decides is an attempt to manipulate him. Wooseok laughs.   
  
“What’s in it for me?” he counters. Kino pouts.   
  
“You won’t help me out of the goodness of your heart?” he pleads. A part of Wooseok wants to break down and admit that he _absolutely will_ help Kino simply to be near him, but the rest of him, who feels he has some sort of dignity to maintain, refuses.   
  
“No,” Wooseok declares firmly. Kino laughs.   
  
“Okay. How about I take you someplace after?” Kino suggests. Wooseok furrows his eyebrows.   
  
“Where?” he wonders. Kino shrugs.   
  
“Someplace cool,” he advertises. A little smirk crept onto his cheeks. Wooseok bites his lip, but nods. He’d go to a dive bar to watch a Nickleback cover band if Kino would be there.   
  
The pair stack up all the chairs and return them to storage, then empty the trash can in their room into the trash chute. Soon enough, Kino is locking the door to the room and they’re ready to leave.   
  
“Alright, where are you taking me?” Wooseok asks, trying not to grin from ear to ear. Kino spins Hui’s key chain in his hand enthusiastically.   
  
“_This_ is a master key that opens any room in this place. I have no idea why it’s been trusted to Hui, but it means I can take you anywhere in here I want,” Kino explains.   
  
“Okay...,” Wooseok acknowledges. The community center was a decent enough venue for meetings, but Wooseok didn’t think it had much going for it besides that. There were a lot of empty rooms, closets filled with furniture and other supplies, and a swimming pool. Plus, he’d seen some fields for sports out back. All useful for a community, but not exactly groundbreaking places in general.   
  
“I’ve seen you use your power a lot. Maybe it’s about time I show you mine,” Kino explains. Wooseok knits his eyebrows together in confusion, but Kino just grabs his hand and pulls him along behind him through the old, grimy halls.  
  
Wooseok never had really paid attention to what came past _their_ room. He walked exactly far enough to reach the meetings, not a step further. Kino clearly hadn’t done the same. He knew his way around. He didn’t even flinch when the old tile that covered the floors for most of the building became grungy, red carpet, nor did he seem put-off by all the lights being out in the building. Wooseok wondered how often Kino came down here and who he usually brought with him.   
  
They finally reach a back door, and Kino takes Wooseok outside. They follow a short path to what appears to be a green house, and everything clicks into place.   
  
“Oh, we’re gonna talk to some plants?” Wooseok teases. Kino frowns.   
  
“I don’t talk to plants,” he says dryly. Wooseok’s face went hot. He was trying to be playfully flippant, but he supposed he wasn’t quite charismatic enough for that. He just closes his mouth tight as Kino unlocks the greenhouse before returning the key chain to his bag.   
  
When Kino pushes the door open, Wooseok is surprised by how big and beautiful every single plant inside is. The ground was simply dirt, and every inch of it was covered with different plants. Wooseok didn’t think he’d ever seen so many different varieties in one place.   
  
“You did all this?” Wooseok asks, crouching down to look at all the flowers more closely. He was thankful for the brick path through the middle of all the plants; otherwise, he feared he would’ve accidentally crushed a few already.   
  
“Um, not all of it,” Kino decides humbly. “When I first started coming here for meetings, there was this grandmother of a lady who took care of everything. It was nice then, but she wasn’t a superhero. I would come here and take care of the plants with her the normal, human way. It kept me grounded.”   
  
“That’s really nice,” Wooseok whispers. Kino nods, then sits down beside him and smiles softly to himself as he watches Wooseok examine all the different colored tulips in front of them.  
  
“It made me really happy for a while, and it kept me sane. Then, she passed away,” Kino explains, biting his lip softly. “It sounds stupid, but had never really lost anyone before that. I never even told her what I could do or offered to use it to help her plant new things. We could’ve planted _anything_ she wanted in here, and she never even knew.”  
  
Wooseok frowns. In that moment, he feels like it’s his job to sympathize with others. Kino did it every week for all of his friends. Wooseok needed to step up for him. He takes Kino’s hand in-between his own palms and squeezes it softly to comfort him. Kino sighs, resting his head on Wooseok’s shoulder in response.   
  
“I didn’t come back here for a while after she died, and I let so many of her plants go with her. I felt so guilty,” Kino whispers. Wooseok could tell Kino was about to cry, so he prays to every god he can think of to prevent that from happening. Wooseok liked Kino. He really did. That didn’t mean he knew what to do when someone cried on his shoulder. “I had to use my power to save them, and that’s when I realized I didn’t need to be grounded. I have a gift. I should use it.”  
  
“You made this place wonderful,” Wooseok assures him. Kino gently curls his fingers around Wooseok’s until they’re properly holding hands, then uses his free hand to pluck a yellow tulip out of the ground. He passes it to Wooseok softly.   
  
“For you, since you like them so much,” Kino points out with a laugh. Wooseok accepts, but he wishes he could crawl into a hole so Kino wouldn’t see how red his face was.   
  
Luckily for Wooseok, Kino immediately turns back toward the plants, focusing on the roots he’d just decapitated. Wooseok watches as a new stem grows in its place, eventually blooming into a new tulip right before his eyes.   
  
“God, that’s so cool,” Wooseok whispers. “You’re like the only human who’s still nature’s friend.”  
  
Wooseok is thankful to see Kino’s face brighten once again at the compliment. It was cheesy and out of character for someone like Wooseok, but he didn’t like it when Kino was upset. He was so kind and gentle; he just didn’t deserve to be sad.   
  
“I hope there are more people out there with my gift,” Kino says dreamily. “I’d like to meet them. We could do so many cool things.”  
  
“I don’t think I’d ever want to know someone else with mine,” Wooseok admits. He clutched his tulip between his fingers as he spoke. How could someone capable of the things he was want to know someone else like him? He hoped no one else had his power.   
  
“You’re so hard on yourself,” Kino complains, squeezing Wooseok’s hand. “You even have to put your power down.”  
  
“I think my power is the main thing about myself I don’t like,” Wooseok admits. “Don’t you ever wish you were normal?”  
  
“No,” Kino replies simply. “I know they tell us over and over that we’re not superheroes, but maybe we could be, you know? I’m not trying to save the city or galaxy or whatever, but I can heal the environment. You can give anybody you want electricity. We could do something besides hide.”  
  
“They tell us we’re not superheroes because we’re _not_, Kino,” Wooseok reminds him, pulling his hand away from Kino’s in annoyance. “What do you think this is? The Avengers? Are you Iron Man or Hulk?”  
  
”First of all, I’m clearly Captain America,” Kino jokes. When Wooseok doesn’t laugh, his tone becomes serious. “Second of all, there is _no_ reason for us not to use our powers. Everybody without them does everything they can to make us ashamed of who we are, and we’ve started buying into it. The fact is that they’re just scared.”  
  
“Maybe they should be,” Wooseok snaps back. “Wouldn’t you be scared there are people out there who could just snap and hurt you one day, whether they wanted to or not? I have no control over what I do sometimes. That doesn’t scare you?”  
  
“No,” Kino declares, reaching out a hand to caress Wooseok’s cheek carefully. “I could never be scared of you.”   
  
Wooseok couldn’t explain why, nor did he even know how to try, but when Kino touches him, he can feel himself start to calm down. Even though they were arguing, and what Kino was saying was the reason Wooseok was upset, his presence brought him comfort and kept him chained to reality.   
  
“I should go,” Wooseok says softly, pulling himself to his feet. “My probation officer doesn’t like me out after sundown.”   
  
“Yeah, of course,” Kino whispers, standing up so he can follow Wooseok out. They head toward the door, but Kino stops before they can get there and tugs on Wooseok’s sleeve to get him to turn around. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean— I was just trying to say that I don’t think it’s right that we’re expected to hate ourselves. I’m not trying to recruit you into my off-brand X-men troop, okay?”   
  
Wooseok sighs. Kino really wasn’t going to let him just escape this conversation.   
  
“I don’t really think you guys get what it’s like,” he says bitterly, pulling his arm away. “I’m always everybody’s go-to example for a nightmarish power they don’t want. I’m constantly afraid I’m going to fuck up again. You all act like it’s the same, but what happens when you guys use your powers on accident? Yanan has trouble picking stuff up? Hongseok accidentally breaks a computer he can turn around and fix as soon as it’s over?”  
  
“You think no one can relate to you just because we can’t turn generators crispy?” Kino asks. Wooseok feels anger starting to pressurize inside of him once again.   
  
“No,” Wooseok snaps. “I think you guys just don’t care to relate to me sometimes. I know you realize how hard it is for me because you guys talk about how you wouldn’t want to be me _all the time_.”  
  
“How are we supposed to form any sort of meaningful connection with you when you won’t _talk to us_?” Kino asks. “You’ve literally never shared. Maybe a lot of us _don’t_ realize how you feel because you never tell us.”  
  
“I shouldn’t have to tell you,” Wooseok grumbles. Kino furrows his eyebrows at him, so Wooseok decides to make his thoughts heard, loud and clear. “It’s obvious. You can all read the newspapers. My life is a fucking disaster. I would give anything to be normal, and I especially don’t want to be a fucking superhero.”  
  
“You said it yourself, to me, last week,” Kino reminds him. “You _said_ you think your powers were meant to be used for something.”  
  
“Yeah. I sometimes think my powers should be used to get back at people who have made having my powers miserable. I don’t think I’m the savior of humanity,” Wooseok corrects him. He only got angrier the longer they talked. The lights flickered above them as Wooseok spoke, but Kino didn’t even flinch.  
  
“Sometimes I think you just want to feel bad for yourself,” Kino snaps. Wooseok clenches his jaw. He feels a wave of rage rush over him, and before he can even attempt to convince himself to calm down, the light bulb in the lamp directly above them explodes, sending glass flying everywhere. Kino gasps and ducks, but Wooseok barely moves.   
  
“Not afraid of me, huh?” he says, rolling his eyes and turning around to leave the greenhouse.   
  
“Wooseok, wait,” Kino calls, but Wooseok doesn’t stop. He can’t. His anger at Kino wasn’t even his main motivation. Now, all he could think about was hurting him. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, no matter what he said about getting even. Everyone he knew was afraid of him, and they were right to be.   
  
When Wooseok gets home, he takes the tulip Kino gave him and puts it inside a book before promptly shoving the book back onto his shelf. No matter how angry or confused he was, Kino still made his heart flutter, and he wanted to remember how he felt tonight before he’d murdered a light bulb. 


	5. Week Five: The Last Time

The next time Wooseok enters the Rose Valley Community Center is potentially the last time he ever will. Wooseok spent a lot of time contemplating if he wanted to attend more meetings, but he didn’t think he could. His mom, just as she had when this started, had insisted it would be good for him, but he didn’t think he could handle seeing Kino every Friday until the end of time.   
  
Reverting back to his old habits, Wooseok is the final person to arrive for their meeting. He knew it was a risk. Arriving last meant he could end up sitting next to Kino. Still, he would rather that than Kino cornering him to talk before the meeting. Not to imply Kino had tried to contact him; he hadn’t. Wooseok probably cared about all of this more than Kino ever did, and Kino wouldn’t even be an issue today.   
  
Luckily for Wooseok, his original seat, right next to Shinwon, is the one waiting for him when he arrives. He had never been so thankful to see Shinwon’s goofy grin greet him.   
  
“You’re in a good mood,” Wooseok notes. Shinwon nods.   
  
“I had a good day at work, and me and Hui are gonna watch _The Princess Bride_ tonight,” Shinwon explains. Wooseok half-raises his eyebrows at Shinwon in response. _Just the two of them?_ “It’s my favorite movie.”   
  
Wooseok lets it go, but he starts to think maybe his one-sided rivalry with Hui truly was even more one-sided than he thought.   
  
Before Wooseok can contemplate the concept any further, Hui is in the center of their circle, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention.   
  
“You guys ready to begin?”   
  
The meeting goes by more smoothly than Wooseok had imagined. Kino didn’t bother him. He didn’t even look at him. Every time Wooseok would steal a glance in his direction, Kino was focused on whoever was speaking. Wooseok is devastated to realize that he _wanted_ Kino to confront him. He wanted to catch Kino looking at him. He wanted Kino to care. Right now, it seemed like he had moved on completely.   
  
The more time Wooseok spends wishing Kino would acknowledge him, the more Wooseok realizes there were some things Kino was right about. How did Wooseok ever expect anyone in this group to support him if he never told them what was going on? How could he feel so guilty about what happened, yet not work toward a better mental state to prevent it from happening again?   
  
The next time there’s a break in the conversation, Wooseok prepares himself emotionally to say something. He wraps his fingers around his folding chair, squeezing the metal tight. If anyone had touched him or the chair in that moment, he wasn’t sure they would’ve regained feeling in their hand. Wooseok was scared. There was no denying that.   
  
“Can I go?” Wooseok asks finally. When Hui nods in response, Wooseok takes a deep breath. He was going to address everybody at least once before he stopped coming here. He had to. “I just want to say that today is the last time I’m required to be here. I don’t know if it helped me the way it was supposed to, and that’s probably on me.”  
  
No one really reacts, but everyone’s eyes are glued to Wooseok, reminding him why he never presented in the first place. The conglomerate of attention was making him restless and uneasy. These were the sorts of feelings that led to him denying entire sectors of a city power.   
  
“I think I owe it to myself and everyone else to share at least once, so this is me doing that,” Wooseok continues. When he looks over at Kino, they make eye contact for the first time all night. Kino does a tiny hand sign for him to continue, and, somehow, Wooseok feels calm again. Maybe Kino did care, even a little, and, if he did, that meant at least one person here wanted to hear what he had to say.   
  
“I have never liked having a difference, even before I did what I did,” Wooseok announces, peeling his eyes away from Kino. He had to say what he needed to now, before his sudden burst of confidence expired. “I think it’s ruined my life. I’m isolated from the people I used to be friends with. I have trouble remaining close to even my mom. I don’t really have any ambitions because I think any decent background check will let an employer know _very_ quickly what I am and what I’ve done. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, and I feel completely alone. I think that’s it. Thank you for listening.”  
  
Wooseok thinks if you closed your eyes you wouldn’t be able to tell other people were in the room in that moment. The others were usually so loud, but tonight they were caught in the headlights.   
  
“You’re not alone,” Hui says finally. Wooseok paused, a little shocked that anyone had cared enough to respond. “Especially not when you’re here.”  
  
“I appreciate it, but if just feels like you all are really comfortable with your powers. I’m not there. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there,” Wooseok admits. He supposed now was the time to be honest. If it went poorly, he never had to return.   
  
“We are _not_ all comfortable with our powers,” Yanan says suddenly. “You saw me almost slap Shinwon when we first met. I _hate_ when objects go through me when I’m intangible. That’s the entire point of being intangible!”  
  
“Oh, same. I can’t think straight whenever I use my power. I forget what’s real, and I don’t know how to put everything back,” Yuto adds.   
  
The conversation explodes into complaints about their differences. Hongseok wishes he could just play a video game without the console arguing with him. Changgu can’t go on more than a couple of dates with any one person because he worries about subconsciously forcing them to like him. Jinho is compelled to tell everyone he meets that he’s a telepath so they can protect themselves, but it just results in no one wanting to hang out with him. Wooseok feels a little more at ease as they describe issues they had with their powers, instead of with other people like usual.   
  
“I guess the reason we don’t talk about not liking our powers is because we _know_ we can’t change them. We hope we can change the people in our lives, though,” Yanan explains. Wooseok nods. It meant a lot to finally hear someone acknowledge that he wasn’t wrong to feel how he did. Wooseok needed to realize not everyone was Kino. He knew he did.  
  
“That makes a lot of sense,” Wooseok says. Yanan nods. Hui beams at the potential progress he sees Wooseok making. “Thank you, all of you.”  
  
He gets a lot of positive chatter and comforting smiles in response. Shinwon even pats him on the back, congratulating him on finally being able to talk to everyone. Wooseok’s mind wanders, trying to decide if this meant he could come back. Even with this resolved, he knew he still had one big problem.   
  
“I’d like to share,” Kino says after a few moments of silence. Wooseok swallowed. How was he supposed to avoid making eye contact with Kino for however long he talked? Couldn’t Kino had given him a share or two to collect himself again?   
  
“Floor’s yours,” Hui confirms. Wooseok can _feel_ Kino’s eyes on him, even though Wooseok was staring at the floor.   
  
“So, for the first time in my life, I have a crush on someone who has a difference,” Kino announces. Wooseok’s throat immediately swells. He definitely didn’t want to hear Kino ramble about whoever he was dating, especially since Hui and Shinwon had already turned into Kino’s personal cheering section despite Kino having only spoken one sentence so far.   
  
“I was pretty excited about it because I’ve always wanted to date someone who’s like us. I know that sounds silly, but it means a lot to me that I’m able to be myself around whoever I date,” Kino explains. There are some soft agreements. “I want to fall in love with someone who understands what it feels like to be enhanced and who loves me _and_ my difference, not in spite of it.”  
  
Wooseok wonders if it would be too obvious for him just to leave the room. He could wait outside for five minutes. Later, he‘d just tell Hui he thinks he has food poisoning to make sure he signed the log.   
  
“But I think I messed it up,” Kino says softly. “I was so focused on myself and how I felt that I never really thought about how we still have two completely different experiences even if we’re both enhanced.”  
  
“I’m sure you didn’t mess it up, Ki. You know how you overthink things,” Hui comforts him with a frown. Kino just shakes his head.   
  
“I’m certain I messed up. I was so concerned with having someone who understood _me_, I never thought about how I needed to understand _him_,” Kino admits. “I want to apologize, but I don’t think he wants to talk to me. Am I just supposed to give him time?”  
  
Of course, this is when Wooseok starts to think that _just maybe_ Kino is talking about him. He had to be, didn’t he? How many boys' feelings could one person hurt in a week?  
  
“No,” Hongseok insists. “Nobody wants time, not really.”  
  
Wooseok bit the inside of his cheek. Hongseok was right. He hadn’t wanted time. He had been hoping for Kino to text him or call him or _anything_ since he’d gotten home last Friday.   
  
“If I already ignored him for a week because I was embarrassed, am I screwed?” Kino asks. Yanan rests a hand on his shoulder beside him.   
  
“Kino, guys who look like you are _never_ screwed,” Yanan assures him. Everyone laughs.   
  
“Pretty people are so privileged,” Jinho complains.   
  
“I’m serious!” Kino yelps. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”  
  
“Kino,” Hui says, corners of his mouth twitching up. “We can’t really offer you advice because everything you’re saying is so vague.”  
  
“I— He’s self-conscious about his difference,” Kino reveals. “And it makes me sad. I think he’s special and cool, and he doesn’t think so at all. I tried to make him see that, but I pushed him too far when I shouldn’t have been pushing him at all.”   
  
Wooseok finally looks up, realizing there was _no way_ Kino was talking about anyone else. Kino had just been staring at him, eyes shimmering and pleading. Wooseok shuts his eyes tight to escape them. He wasn’t exactly jumping to announce to this entire meeting what was happening, though he was sure some of them had pieced it together already.   
  
“You should tell him that,” Hui advises. “He doesn’t _want_ to be mad at you, Kino. Odds are, he really likes you and wishes this hadn’t happened at all.”   
  
Wooseok fidgeted with the screw underneath his chair, trying to avoid looking suspicious. In truth, his brain was pounding with thoughts about Kino. Hui wasn’t wrong; Wooseok felt horrible about the entire conversation. He felt horrible even now.   
  
“You’re right,” Kino says. He and Wooseok finally make eye contact again, and Wooseok feels his heartbeat go off like it’s in a race. “I just wish he knew how sorry I am.”  
  
“He will. As soon as you talk to him,” Hui encourages. Kino nods, slowly tearing his gaze away from Wooseok.   
  
“Does anyone else want to share?” Kino asks, stealing Hui’s line. Hui acts like he’s offended, but he ushers in a story from Jinho about how guilty he felt because he manipulated a salesman as a way to change the subject.   
  
Wooseok can’t focus on anything anybody is saying after that. It was clear that Kino had been addressing him, and Wooseok didn’t really know how he felt. He liked Kino. He’d liked Kino this entire time. Kino hadn’t intended to hurt him. And maybe Kino was right. Wooseok saw his powers as a nuisance, as something that just made his life worse. Maybe the solution to that wasn’t to punish people who made him feel that way. Maybe it was to find a way to make it so nobody could influence the way he felt.   
  
Not too long later, Hui is wrapping up the meeting. Wooseok almost wished it would continue, just so he wouldn’t have to talk to Kino before he figured out how he felt. Wooseok _did_ want to talk things through with him, but he was afraid.  
  
He decides to avoid Kino, who was lingering near the door, presumably waiting for Wooseok, by getting his final log signed. He walks over to Hui to ask him for his signature, and by the time Wooseok glances back at Kino, he’s gone.   
  
“Hui,” Wooseok says softly as Hui signs his name in the final box on his log, indicating he had successfully completed this aspect of his probation.   
  
“Yeah?” Hui replies, looking back up at Wooseok as he finished writing.   
  
“I hope this doesn’t upset you, but Kino told me that you get headaches from using your power. I was wondering if that’s something that’s common,” Wooseok proposes. A part of him had been thinking about this since the first time he saw Hui swallow Advil like it was candy. Wooseok envied him; he had an excuse not to use his power. Wooseok would like one. He could resolve things with Kino without having to give in to using his power.   
  
Hui cracks a smile, looking down at the floor before meeting Wooseok’s eyes again.   
  
“Wooseok, I don’t get the headaches from using my difference,” he corrects him. “I get them because I _don’t_.”  
  
“I don’t understand—”  
  
“I meant it when I said you’re not alone. You’re not the only person who thinks your power ruined your life. I lost everything because I can change the volume of my radio in the car without taking my hands off the steering wheel,” Hui elaborates. “I don’t want this enhancement. I get no satisfaction from using it. I haven’t since I showed you what it is, five weeks ago.”  
  
“And it— it hurts you?” Wooseok practically whimpers. He felt sorry for Hui, and he felt sorry he’d never listened to what he was saying enough to realize there was someone who felt the way he did.   
  
“Yeah, I guess. I think it’s the nature of my difference specifically that makes this happen. Sounds will linger in my mind. They start to pressurize. There’s nothing I can do but wait for it to pass,” Hui explains.   
  
“Couldn’t you just adjust sound a little every once in a while to stop it?”   
  
“Maybe,” Hui says. “But I would rather my head hurt.”   
  
Wooseok nods in response. He felt even worse for villainizing Hui than he already did. Hui was only ever kind to him, and he seemed to know what Wooseok was going through better than anyone. If Wooseok has made a real effort, he would have realized how much in common they had.  
  
“I hope you come back next week,” Hui says gently, returning Wooseok’s log to him. “Because you want to this time.”  
  
“Thank you,” Wooseok whispers. Hui nods, offering him another smile and patting his back before turning around to finish folding the chairs.   
  
Wooseok exits their room, and he knows immediately he can’t go home feeling how he does now. His mind was moving faster than he could comprehend. Every thought he had disappeared before he could decide how he felt about it.   
  
He just walks and walks, all the way through the community center and out the back door until he reaches the greenhouse he had come to with Kino last week. He realizes he doesn’t have the key to go inside, so he just collapses onto a bench a few feet away and buries his face into his hands. Wooseok just wanted to disappear.   
  
After a couple of minutes of teetering between trying to calm himself down and just letting himself cry, Wooseok realizes there was someone watching him from a few feet away.   
  
As soon as Wooseok looked up, he met Kino’s eyes. In that moment, he wished he could be _anywhere_ but where he was.   
  
“Hey,” Kino whispers. Wooseok just stares for a second. His throat had been completely dried out since Kino’s little announcement, and talking to Hui hadn’t helped either.   
  
“Hi,” Wooseok mumbles back. Kino seems to see his greeting as an invitation to talk about this finally, as he sits down next to Wooseok as soon as the word leaves his mouth.   
  
“Why didn’t you go home?” Kino asks.   
  
“Had a lot to think about,” Wooseok replies dryly. “Didn’t want to think about it alone in my room in the middle of a city block with lots of generators.”  
  
“Wooseok,” Kino says softly, turning to face him. Wooseok doesn’t move. “I’m really sorry.”  
  
“It’s not a big deal,” Wooseok asserts. Of course, they both knew it _was_. That was just Wooseok’s way of telling Kino he wasn’t ready to talk.   
  
“Yes, it is,” Kino maintains. “I could physically see how I hurt your feelings. That’s a big deal.”  
  
“It’s not about you,” he insists. Kino frowns.   
  
“What’s it about then?”   
  
“Me,” Wooseok declares. Kino is taken aback.   
  
“You?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Wooseok, I don’t—”  
  
“Light fixtures shouldn’t explode every time I get upset,” Wooseok says decidedly. “I shouldn’t be upset that you think I should make use of my power, anyway.”  
  
“I didn’t come here because I think you’re wrong,” Kino assures him. Wooseok shakes his head.   
  
“I know you didn’t. That doesn’t mean I’m not,” Wooseok replies. “Look at you, Kino. You’ve decided on a career that involves your power. You’ve built this entire greenhouse, channeling your power into a hobby that’s meaningful to you. You have an entire group of friends who love you and will do anything for you. My closest friend is the clerk who works in the convenience store on the first floor of my apartment building, and he definitely doesn’t know I harness electricity. Why is it so bad for you to think I should want more? Maybe I should.”  
  
“It’s not about wanting more. It’s about using your power how you want to,” Kino insists. “You can be happy with friends and hobbies and a career that doesn’t have anything to do with electric currents. I don’t care what you do. I just didn’t want you to be so sad.”  
  
“I think part of what is making me sad is that I don’t know what I want,” Wooseok admits. Hui made him realize that. Hui _knew_ he didn’t want to use his power, and he was willing to endure the consequences of that. Wooseok wasn’t sure he could do the same. “I’ve never known if I want to use my power for good like you or for myself like Hongseok or not at all like Hui. Maybe it would help me to figure it out.”   
  
“So what’s your plan then?” Kino asks with a tiny smile. Wooseok wanted to dissolve into the earth.   
  
“Well,” Wooseok begins. “I have to save just not using my power for last, obviously.”  
  
“Of course. That’s just logic,” Kino agrees, still grinning at Wooseok.   
  
“And I don’t really know how to use my power to my advantage yet. I could start an electrician empire, but that’s not really my style,” Wooseok adds. Kino, again, nods enthusiastically like Wooseok is some sort of genius.   
  
“You’re right. I don’t see it,” Kino agrees.   
  
“So, I guess that leaves trying out this whole _helping people_ thing, with you,” Wooseok determines. Kino claps his hands together excitedly.   
  
“Okay, so,” Kino enthuses, resting a hand on Wooseok’s shoulder. “I haven’t really thought about how you can help yet because of last week, but I know what I want to do. There’s a gross pit by my house. I was thinking we could make it into a park! Like on _Parks and Rec_, you know? I could grow the grass and the trees and convince the bunnies to hang out there...”  
  
“You are _so_ cute,” Wooseok complains. Kino blushes softly, but brings up his hands and rests one on either side of Wooseok’s jaw. Wooseok braces himself in fear when he feels metal touching his cheek, but nothing happens besides Kino gently meeting his lips. Wooseok’s nervousness overwhelms him, making for an awkward kiss, but Kino doesn’t seem to mind. He just smiles at Wooseok, even after he pulls away.   
  
“Will you do me a favor?” Wooseok whispers. Kino nods. “Take off your rings.”  
  
“Why?” Kino laughs. He does it anyway, pulling two silver rings off his index and middle fingers and sliding them into his jacket pocket.   
  
“Because,” Wooseok says, gingerly reaching for Kino’s hand and intertwining their fingers together. “Metals are conductors and I don’t have great emotional stability right now.”  
  
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Kino jokes, squeezing Wooseok’s palm tight.   
  
“I’m almost positive killing someone is a probation violation, and I _really_ don’t want to go to jail,” Wooseok snips back. Kino laughs and snuggles into Wooseok’s shoulder in response, and Wooseok can barely believe Kino is real. “You’re insane.”   
  
“Why?” Kino asks.   
  
“I literally _just_ told you I’m afraid of electrocuting you, and you don’t even care,” Wooseok observes. Kino shrugs.   
  
“I don’t believe you’d hurt me, no matter how out of control you are,” Kino confesses. Wooseok sighs.   
  
“Insane, I tell you,” he repeats.   
  
“Whatever,” Kino practically sings in response. After a couple of moments of silence, he excitedly pulls away from Wooseok. “We should think of our superhero names.”  
  
“I’m already Electro,” Wooseok grumbles. He didn’t think he could hate that name more than he already did.   
  
“You can’t use that!” Kino snaps, pushing Wooseok playfully as though he was an absolute moron. “So many people already know who Electro is. You need a different one.”  
  
Wooseok bites back a smile. He was coming to realize that Kino understood him more than he thought. He couldn’t wait to build a million parks with him. 


End file.
